Demonic Madness
by DIM666 - Insane Leader
Summary: Six Mobians. All directly influenced by an old Eggman's drive to conquer the entire world, a demonic force no one has ever seen the full power of before, and a mysterious shadow named Mephilis. Follow Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Blaze, Amy, and Sally Acorn as they fight their way through the Iblis incident. Sonic Next Gen 06 Adaption with some SatAm characters. Sequel to Faded Memories.
1. Beginings of Destruction

Welcome folks! Whether you have come here from reading Faded Memories or just from finding this story in the listings, I do welcome you to this Adaption of Sonic Next Gen 06!

And I should tell every single one of you that THIS DOES NOT HAVE ELISE! NO ELISE! NO ELISE NO ELISE NO ELISE! NO beastaphilia, or however it's spelt!

Six major characters in this story! I'll be writing from their viewpoints in first person perspective. Also, this story takes place, technically, the 'autumn' after the events of Faded Memories, For perspective, Sonic Heroes occurred in May, Faded Memories took place in late July, and this story begins on the first week of October.

With no further adue, HERE WE GO!

* * *

I smirked again. "You know full and well I'll be there."

She sighed again. "I'm not that stupid. You will get bored in 15 seconds and then leave."

Again, my trademark grin spread across my face. "I highly doubt that. Your royalty! Of course your secret admirer would watch!"

The princess sighed again. "Sonic…"

"Relax Sal! You'll be able to look up into the sky and see me."

She scoffed. "And since when could you fly?"

I wasn't really left with any good answer for that one. Instead, I leaned in, touching her lips with my own lightly. Just enough.

Pulling back, I caught her blush. "You have no retort." She chuckled, standing up and turning her back to me.

"Hey! I do to-"

"You only kiss me like that to shut me up whenever you are on the losing end of the argument." I jumped up, running to her side. Before I could say anything to her, she put her finger on my lips. "I have to go. Since no one knows about us, I can't be seen with a commoner like you!"

"Still stuck on that separation of the classes thing, aren't ya?" I jabbed back.

"Yes. And the members of the United Nations are still stuck on the separations of species." She walked over to her large walk-in closet.

I caught myself there. "They still think that us Mobians are inferior."

"Plenty so. I've even seen some leaders of the nations trying to support Robotnik. Of course, only the ones that are truly crazy." Ah yes. She remembered our old SatAm days. She pulled out a long orange dress with small, hollow crystals hanging from it. "This should be fine."

"Honestly, Sally, I think you should wear your normal garb." I chuckled, standing up to leave. If there was anything she had made clear, it was that she wanted no one around when she was changing, and besides, I was ready for a run.

"Sonic Hedgehog, a vest is very inappropriate."

"Whatever. If you see any of our old friends, drop them a hi." Opening the window, I prepped to jump out.

"Tell Amy and Tails I said hi then. So long Sonic."

"Like I said Sal, look up." Before diving out the window, I could hear her releasing an exasperated sigh. Hitting the ground, I kicked my pace up, starting to run and put distance quickly between the Royal Acorn Castle and myself. I needed to have a nice little run before attending that parade of hers.

Feeling the wind in my quills once more, the euphoric sense of freedom overwhelmed my senses again. Again promising to myself one thing, I would bring Sally out on one of these runs. But first, she insisted that we'd have to make our 'relationship' public to the world, and who knows how long it would be before she would let that happen. Sigh. I guess you just have to take what you get and be happy with it.

* * *

Setting the last charge, I glanced at the timer on it. 2 minutes and 54 seconds. Plenty of time. Kicking my shoes together, I began skating off and out of Robotnik's tunnel. Rouge had already thoroughly cleaned this place out, GUN insured that anything valuable technology wise or money wise was removed before this currently unused hide-out was blown to smithereens. GUN had made of habit of forcing me to blow up Eggman's bases recently. This was the third one this month. Surely by now he was running out of spare hiding places.

Rounding another corner, and seeing the exit up ahead, I put an extra burst of speed in my move outward. With stunning fashion, my body cleared the open window. I jumped the fortress's wall totally, and directing all of my force downward, my feet and left fist slammed into the snowy ground. Taking another glance at my watch that I placed beside my inhibitor ring, I frowned. "To long." Standing up, I began walking away, looking down at my watch as I left the base behind me.

Suddenly, the walls vibrated and began crumbling behind me. Turning around to watch the seen in interest, the Daisy Cutter that I planted in the basement suddenly split the main building in half, the sides falling down. The smaller bombs that I placed in the surrounding buildings destroyed themselves from the roof down. A breeze of ash mixed with the cold artic snow batted my face, and I folded my arms as the scene of destruction unfolded before me.

Holding up my left arm again, I tapped the watch. "This is Project Shadow reporting. Target has been annihilated, over."

A bit of static, followed by the next muffled order. "Copy that Project Shadow. Jewel H is requesting assistance in the Windy Valley back in Mobiotropolis, over."

"I'll be there within the hour. Over and out." Now putting the scene of burning flames licking the shattered metal behind me again, I turned around, pulling out my Chaos emerald. "Chaos…CONTROL!" In a flash, space warped around me, and I appeared just outside the windy valley.

* * *

"This world was devastated just before I was born. Now it's a harsh bleak place, where the few survivors live in eternal, corrupted darkness." My hands curled into a fist. "Life is a constant struggle, and the people that once lived in this city with us lived without hope."

My yellow eyes cast down onto the flowing lava between the buildings. "How could this possibly happen? No one would ever answer me. The only thing they would to was to point…to these flames."

Almost as if my words summoned it, a huge geyser of flame burst from the lava stream beneath me. Raising up to my height, it gained the look of a giant tentacle with three claws at the end, reaching to grab me. Not bothering to give the creature a second thought, I released a small burst of my power at it, and the creature melted away in front of my face.

My telekinetic ability seemed to be one of only two things that kept me alive this long. It enabled me to fly above the unstable ground, and fly out of the reach of the fiery demons that roamed the 'streets' and lava rivers. "These flames have destroyed my world, and I see what remains of it breaking apart, piece by piece. And they come from a truly eternal life form, one that is impossible to defeat. It's not made of matter, nor energy." I cast my gaze from the sky down across the dilapidated city. "It's a spiritual entity, the Demonic Flames of Disaster, known to us as Iblis, the Ultimate tempter."

I was 14 years old now, at least, that's what I could figure without the sun. And I still had no real idea what I was fighting for, save for my life, and hers…

"Silver!"

Instinctively, I channeled my thoughts to turn my body toward my only accomplice in this bleak location. "Blaze! What's wrong?" I called to my female ally, standing ontop of one of the buildings that have been hollowed out.

"It's happening again!" She shouted back at me, her bright purple form standing out like neon lights in this location where the predominant colors were flame red, ash black, and burnt gray.

"I'll take care of this!" With a single though impulse, I propelled myself in the direction she pointed. My ears, not as in-tune as hers, could still pick up her running and leaping as she chased after me, faster then anything I had ever seen or imagined in my life. The two of us together could keep each other alive, at least, and continue to combat these flames…for the rest of our lives

* * *

"I might want to take over from here." I called to Sliver, knocked out of the sky from one of the flying fire demons. Readying a ball of flames in my hand, I took the creatures out of the sky, and they crashed onto the ground, slowly solidifying into a sheet of rock. Running off again, I leapt off of the ground and onto the sides of one of the buildings. Balancing while running on the side of it, I had to be careful not to catch my foot in any of the holes that patterned it perfectly, while looking for the large hole that I had memorized was a shortcut.

Silver wasn't fast enough to run after me, but he could fly behind me, so I wasn't worried. Jumping into the large hole that had been melted through the structure, my body shifted from diagonally oriented back to straight up and down. Tearing through the singed hallways, I found one of those remaining boost pads that hadn't been destroyed. Using it as a launch ramp, my body was carried across the ash-streaked sky and landed on a platform with more demons. The set I had to deal with now looked like giant angry dogs, made of pure magma.

I leapt into the air, slamming my feet into the first one, shooting a fireball at the second one to distract it while I jumped onto its face, and the third one and fourth one I landed on their backs. Like every other demon here, it would lose it's shape and solidify, only to return to form when hit with any spraying magma or fire.

Returning to the mission at hand, I jumped onto a thin ramp, and again careful with balance, ran across it, trying to reach the other side, which was a collapsed building. Once there, I recalled how the giant worm demons would keep themselves ready on these locations to attack us. Readying several more fireballs, I attacked each and every fire worm as it worked it's way out of the building, eliminating it's problems.

The next gap was to far for me to jump. "How the-" Before I could finish, familiar, cool energy wrapped itself around my body, and Silver 'levitated' me to the opposing platform of semi-stable cement. Readying my fireballs, and Silver landing beside me, we looked at the lava phenomenon.

A large slab of it began rising into the air, like a huge cylinder going up and up. Then, with almost no warning, arms burst out of it's sides, and it's head reared up, having a set of eyes on it's chin and it's forehead, while it's mouth was located in the center. Ten horns stuck out of it's head in various places, and a smaller eleventh one could be seen jutting from it's forehead.

The creature wailed in defiance. Several metal object blew by me, and Silver launched surrounding debris at the being. Turning my back to the battle between the two, as smaller demons began to rise up to try and distract us, I blasted them with my own fireballs, or smashed them with my feet, their ashes dusting my shoes.

* * *

Stretching to the ceiling, I looked around at the airport terminal. Countless humans were walking around, grabbing their bags while a few Mobians could be seen sprinkled in amongst them. "Perfect representation of the race difference. 20 to 1"

Walking up to the baggage claim, several humans tried deliberately to prevent me and an older anthromorphic fox from getting their luggage. Ignoring them, I walked around to the other side of the conveyor belt, where an older couple moved out of the way as I grabbed my bags and proceeded to leave.

Once outside, I reached into my dress and pulled out the invitation. My dear old 'sister' Sally Acorn had invited me to watch the Rosh HaShannah festival that the nation of Mobius would hold in honor of their Jewish inhabitants. It was to be 'a wonderful festival' the invitation said, 'commemorating the Jewish date of the World's creation!' Sally's signature handwriting, big and fluent letters, graced the page.

"It will be so nice to see Sally again." Setting my pink luggage beside me, I stuck my thumb out, trying to hitch a ride on one of the taxis running around. However, none of them would stop for me, even though I could see the same ones that drove right past me pick up more 'human' passengers.

"Darn it! Can't a Mobian woman get any respect around here!?" I asked, stomping my foot. A taxicab pulled up next to me, and smiling, I opened the back seat, throwing my luggage in and climbing in myself. The smell of cigarette smoke permeated the air.

"The Lost Santa Cablanos Hotel please?" I asked, waiving my hand in front of my face.

The driver pulled the car off of the curb, and began driving. "My pleasure… Miss…?"

"Rose. Miss Rose. But you can call me Amy."

"Very well then Miss Amy Rose. The Lost Santa Cablanos Hotel it is! You here for that jewish thing?"

"I was invited by a dear friend."

"Ahh, I see. Do they live here?"

"Yes, indeed they do."

"Would I happen to know this person?" He asked again, blowing another puff out of his 'cancer-stick'.

"More then likely. The 'Queen' of Mobius."

"Her majesty Sally Acorn?" The old man coughed on his own lung-full of smoke in shock. "I don't believe that." As we pulled up to an intersection and it's stop light, I handed him the invitation. "I'll be darn. I didn't know that I was in such royal company! How does she know you?"

"We go back, a little ways." I sighed, looking out the window. "We all go back a ways." My thoughts drifted to my friends. Tails was already here and had reserved rooms for him and I, while Sonic was sure to be here for such a famous event with one of his best friends. I also couldn't help but wonder if I might run into any of my real old friends. Bunnie, Antonie, the like. By far, it would be great to catch up, especially on a day that was rumored to always have spectacular fireworks and the like.

* * *

Walking forward between the roped-off sections of crowd, I waved to the people that were hanging their arms out and over, trying to wave at me.

At only 3 feet and an inch, I was pretty short compared to most of these 5 and a half foot tall humans. But regardless, I was surprised at how much support I had earned from the opposite species when I came to power. Carrying the Ram's horn by my side, and my most trusted advisor at my side, the sun just about to vanish over the horizon to my left, there was no pressure to be felt, something I truly treasured in my nation.

"You've got this, suga."

Turning to my counselor, I smiled back at Bunnie. The platform that was roped off for me was up ahead, several extra guards standing watch there. Quickening my step a bit, I rotated the ram's horn in my hand several times over. Finally ending up on the pedestal, and turning the horn in my hand, I raised it up to my mouth, ready to signify the start of the Jewish new year, like I would for the Muslims in just a few more months. Ah, what I do to try and keep peace in this nation between the humans.

Repeating what I had learned and studied very hard, I blew a long blast from my lungs through the Shofar. The sound was picked up by the speakers that were set on the circumference of the pedestal, and echoed throughout Mobiotropolis' main square. All went quiet, and I followed the long blow with 3 broken blows, and 9 quick, peppy blows. My lungs took a break after that, I inhaled deeply, and then blew out a long, stunning blast that I didn't even know I could do. Again, I had to catch my breath, and everyone looked at me suspiciously, wondering if I had forgotten the last step. Proving them wrong, I concluded with three final broken blows and 9 final quick blows.

All was quiet still. "_Shana Tova Umetukah!_" "A Good and Sweet Year!"

That was when the crowd lost it. Everyone screamed in delight, overjoyed by the start of the New Year. I remembered something said to me earlier…

'_Look Up.'_

Raising my head skyward, I observed as the stars began to show themselves. Fireworks began going off in the far distance, some going off in brightly colored sparks while others, in flames in the sky.

And then the platform was rocked violently. The bridge onto the water platform exploded, and the guards, Bunnie, and I all shook unsteadily, trying to regain our footing.

"Mah stars! What in the-"

Multiple familiar clanks could be heard as machines dropped onto the platform, making it even more cramped. "Swatbots…"

Indeed they were, just like how I could so vividly remember them from several years ago. Each with their weapons raised, ready to attack anyone who would make any hostile moves. So much for the guards.

A familiar floating sound was heard, and a floating 'bowl' of some sort glided down. The side popped open, and my old rival, Dr. Eggman Robotnik, stepped out. Sonic said that since after out 'Satam' days, he really calmed down and wasn't much more scary then a cream-puff. I couldn't agree less with him right now.

"Pleasure to meet you again, Queen Sally Acorn." He chuckled deeply. "I am here to congratulate you on putting together the wonderful food for this meal, and, to have you come with me so I can begin the Empire of Eggman!"

I stared at him blankly. That was it? Not even his dark laugh?

"Your majesty, if you don't, I'll make you come by force!"

"There's no way she's going with you!" Several swatbots reached out seized Bunnie and one of the guards that was beginning to load his gun.

"Actually, yes, she is." He reached his hand out, and then one of the swatbots fell at his feet. "What!?"

One by one by one by one, each and every swatbot fell to the ground, it's head smashed in. I stepped back, smirking confidently.

"Hey Eggman! Or should I call you Ro-Butt-Nick, since that's the type of stuff you're using again. Why don't you just tell me what exactly you need the princess for, and I just wipe your little robot armada out like I always have, especially because now you DON'T have a roboticizer ray!"

"You, blue hedgehog…" He growled, and I looked at Sonic as the blue hero winked, almost like he briefly lost all of his maturity and act like it was back from _that_ time.

"You were expecting someone else?" His taunts back did nothing but aggravate the doctor. "Nice to see you two Bunnie, Sal. Let's show this guy how we can still kick but!"

Several more swatbots dropped from a giant airship in the sky, landing around us.

"Just like good old times, right Sally?"

I frowned. "Just like good old times, and I still think you're going to get yourself hurt." Backing up against my royal advisor and my 'secret' admirer, we raised our fists, ready to fight back.

* * *

Ah yes. Really, the decision to include SATam characters and references wasn't made until like…last week?

Timeline for those of you that will have timeline issues. Sonic The Hedgehog 1 occurred first, followed by it's sequel and the Sonic 3 and Knuckles game. After that was SatAm, followed by Sonic CD, SADX and SAB2, Heroes, Faded Memories *Aka Shadow the Hedgehog*, and then this. I know it seems jumpy and unorganized, but try to stay with me here.

Review! I hope you all liked this, and will continue to like this!


	2. Exhaustion

Ah yes, now we get into this! Sadly, most of the story's chapters won't be as long as the opening one, but that's because I'm not going to be covering 6 people's viewpoints in one chapter, every chapter. To complicated and to bulky of a task. I'll stick with two veiwpoints at a time. Sonic and Sally, Blaze and Silver. That kinda forces me to stick Amy with Shadow, but seeing as how I wrote them well enough together in Faded Memories, that shouldn't be to hard.

I should of put this warning in the prior chapter, but eh, I'll put it in now. This story will contain a lot of controversial elements. Prejudice, Religious themes, intentional murder, and the like. In a way, this could be the darkest fic I have ever written. And again, a loose adaption, so it may be totally off the main game itself in some areas. For instance, levels. I go an idea from ProtoRevelation to take various old stages and torque them. I don't have a whole bunch ready, but amongst those that I will be using and changing will be Speed Highway *SADX*, Windy valley *SADX*, and Ice Cap *Sonic 3 and Knuckles*.

But for now, we are still at Mobiotropolis, where the Evil Dr. Eggman Robotnik is trying to unfold a plan that he's not spilled the beans on yet. Enjoy, because HERE WE GO!

* * *

"Bring it!"

The good ol' doctor ordered another dose of: "Get the Blue Hedgehog!". Running at the next set of swatbots that showed up, I couldn't help but chuckle. These clunkers were nothing, I had learned so many new tricks since those days. I leapt, deliberately, into one of their arms.

"Hey buddy. Mind if I borrow this?" I asked, yanking the arm out of it's socket. Jumping off of him, I curled into a ball and rocketed myself at the next robot, bitch-slapping it's face with the arm multiple times at only a speed I could accomplish. It's head came unscrewed, and I went to the next one, tripping it with its comrade's arm. As the machine crashed into the ground, I jumped onto it's head and ensured it wouldn't get back up.

Lasers split the metal arm in my hand, and now left with nothing but a stump of an arm, I looked at the robots with the laser arms that were gracious enough to shoot at me.

"Now, that's no way to treat your entertainer!" Jumping off of one of the side, I tore right in the midst of them. As they continued to fire at me, they turned theri lasers at each other while trying to follow me, destroying themselves.

"Good job. Round two!"

The metallic sound of wings beating in the air echoed through the sky. Looking up at the oh-so-familiar Buzz Bombers that began 'raining' laser from their stingers down on us. Keeping their attention on me and off of the two girls, I had to admit one thing. "Geez Eggman. Looks like you finally went through your recycling bin!"

"You have no idea, nitwit!" His old voice shouted.

An explosion rocked over my head. Sally rolled beside me, picking up one of the laser-arms from one of the broken Swat-Bots, and aiming it at Robotnik. "More!" He snapped, and several dozen more Buzz Bombers showed up in between us, making a fine little wall.

One of the buzz-bombers blew to pieces from her majesty's stolen 'lazer arm'. I quickly put my hand over her's. "Don't! I'll handle this!" Curling up into a ball, and spinning in one place, I readied an attack I hadn't used for a year or so. Shooting into the air, going fast that I couldn't even tell what happened, my Light-Speed Attack rocketed off of every single Buzz Bomber in sight, destroying them within seconds.

As the remains of the last one fell to the ground, my own body landed on the ground, smoking from the remains of the metallic weapons. "Any more?"

"As a matter of fact, I do!" Something familiar dropped by my feet, and began flashing. "Whoa!" Jumping to the side, I rolled out of the way of the bomb.

It didn't explode beside us. With stunning accuracy, it shot back up into the sky and into a light red parachute, lighting it on fire as the sound of metallic screeches wailed above us.

The first of the Bomb-throwing badniks landed, holding a bomb in each hand. In any other situation, I wouldn't of been worried, but this platform was small, smaller then I remember fighting on back at the Casino Park this spring.

Before it could toss any weapons, the Monkey-like machine was yanked off the ground, tossed into the water. Bunny brushed her flesh and metallic hands off, and then jumped into the sky, grabbing the next-nearest Badnik. Again, she tossed it to the side, tossing a bomb to Sally and another one at I.

"It's called baseball, without the bat!" She shouted in her familiar southern accent. Holding the ticking sphere, I tossed it back into the air, missing the parachuting badnik I was aiming for but hitting a separate one instead. Sally might have had better aim, she took them down pretty fast.

With each badnik destroyed, its flashing spheres ready to detonate. Within seconds, we had plenty of spheres, and no badniks.

"Congrats Hedgehog! Next!"

Nothing else came out of the sky, but this time from the water surrounding our new make-shift island platform. I had to groan. The crab-badniks clicked their claws, signifying Plasma-shots ready to be launched from their claws.

"Doc, you really did run through the recycling bin!" I shouted, now kicking the explosive spheres at the crabmeats as they raised out of the water.

Before that was even finished, something metallic smacked me in the face. It jumped back into the water, as two more jumped out over it. Trying to kick bombs into the rest of the stupid badniks, another Chopper robot leapt from the water, nearly tearing Sally's dress off.

"Agh! One goes under, and two more takes its place!" Picking up one of the crabmeat badniks, I tossed it at one of the metallic piranhas. They went up in a small boom and puff of smoke, and that was about it. Still alot more to go.

* * *

I had no idea how long we had been fighting. Gasping for breath, I fell to my knees, taking the very few precious second I knew that we'd have to regain my fortitude under the now rising sun. We had been fighting literally all night, never getting more then 5 seconds rest.

Robotnik's strategy was so obvious. He was choosing all of his weakest robots at first, and working his way up to the harder stuff now. I cast a glance to my side at Sonic, blood running from his temple and coating the fur on the left side of his face, from one of the flying robots with those revolving metallic wings. His panting told me that despite being fast and very endurant, his limits were finally being pressed. I took a second glance at Bunnie on my other side, who's right leg was ash-coated and exposed several strange wires that were slowly leaking electrical fluids. Her fleshy arm was also cut just above the elbow, and her own heaving was loud enough for me to know that she was grasping for more energy.

Another snap from Robotnik as the last 'stolen' GUN beetle plummeted into the ground. "Next round! Egg Pawns!"

I looked down at my own self. The dress I had chosen for this occasion was torn in multiple places, my side scratched enough to draw my own red mobian blood into the dress' fabric.

Almost as if they appeared, all of us were surrounded by orange fat robots, some carrying guns and one of them carrying a mace. They took up the rest of the 'land' that we were standing on. Which, by now, was little more then a slowly rising pile of robot debris.

Jumping, or trying to, I tackled one of them, knocking it to the ground. The machine fell over, but stood back up, it's hull impenetrable by something weak as I was.

An explosion rocked the distance, and almost out of sight I could see an aerial battle occurring between the fighter jets of my own nation and other robots made by Robotnik. No wonder we had no aid, Robotnik was keeping the Military, Navy, and Air force preoccupied.

One of the bots picked me up by the dress, but I didn't notice until I heard it start to tear around my neck. Snapping out of my stare on the battle in the distance, I whirled around and tried throwing a roundhouse punch into it. Again, the machine fell, rolled, and popped back up.

No power, and no speed behind anything I could do. What a way to go out, totally exasperated. Another smash could be heard behind me, and Sonic lazily jogged beside me.

"My, gosh." he gasped, roundhouse kicking the Egg Pawns surrounding us. "Does this ever stop?"

A bullet whizzed by us, as one of them tried shooting us with it's gun. Bunnie smashed a hole in it's side with her arm, but even that wasn't nearly as powerful as the totally-shattering punches from earlier.

"Sonic!" I turned to him. "Throw me!"

"What!?" My hero asked, his eye twitching in exhaustion.

"Throw me at Robotnik! I can attack him!"

He stared for a moment, and then grabbed me, turning around, and curled into a ball, whizzing around as fast as he currently could. The world spun uncontrollably around me, and suddenly I was standing with Robotnik, face to face on his floating platform.

Before he could do anything, I half-jumped and punched him in the face. The fat human stumbled backwards, and I threw another jab. This time he grabbed my fist, and quickly turning it, the 'old fat man' ad my arm twisted behind my back, grabbing my fist tightly.

"Well, that's all I needed to do here folks! I hope you enjoyed your trip down memory lane! I've got to go!" Raising my leg behind me, I slammed my feet into what should have been his testes. However, the sound my boots banging against solid metal sounded instead.

"Sally!" Sonic's shout from below was easy to identify.

Then, a hard force into my neck, and all went black.

"Make sure you get her taken care of. It's top priority!" I said to the medical worker as they laid Bunnie down on the quick make-shift tent.

The cyborg protested here. "Now don't go amaking a big fuss all over me! There are more important things to be taken care of, like Sally!"

"We'll do what we can Sonic sir." One of the medical works remarked, putting his hands on her chest and trying to get her to lay down. Another explosion rang out in the distance.

"What the hell is Eggman trying to do? He's already captured the princess!"

I turned to face the military general beside me. "I don't know, but I intend to get your Queen back." Another explosion rocked the area, a already dilapidated building falling apart as an Egg-Bomber continued randomly destroying the city.

"Wait! Sonic! You still need medical attention!"

My eyes ran over all the people and mobians already here, injured from the bombings and military fighting that went of right in the middle of the celebration last night. I ran my hand over the now dried-blood that coated the side of my face. I felt exhausted, run-down, and in dire need of sleep. But every second I wasted here was another second farther away Sally was from safety.

"It doesn't matter." My voice rang out. Kicking my feet together, I ran forward and chased in the northwardly direction I had seen them fly off. I would get her yet.

* * *

I'm actually pretty satisfied with this chapter. It might be a while before I get the next one up, I have a story of mine that needs finishing that I promised myself that I'd finish this week, and another one that needs updating. But I hope you enjoyed. Review!

Next time: Shadow and Amy's sides of their events.


	3. Enter the Prince of the Demons

Next chapter! Now for those of you curious on how Amy will play a role in this story, well, you'll start finding out how in this chapter. But, Shadow also is in this chapter, and after finishing Faded Memories, I have decided that he is definitely my favorite character to write for! So yeah, goodness on both sides!

And with that, HERE WE GO!

* * *

My feet planted firmly on the floating ground. Looking around at the broken and charred earth, again, I wondered one thing. 'What the hell would GUN need Rouge for in this barren wasteland?'

Skating forward on the broken path, I round-housed kicked my leg into a giant fiery creature that popped out of the ground. Shooting forward down the path, and running between the various fire creatures in the area, my eyes kept peeled for my teammate.

More often then not, we were sent on missions together. However, that had changed recently. Rouge had been going with this inventor warlus…Rotor? And I was usually partnered up with nobody. The way I liked it.

Backflipping off of another fiery being, and pulling out my Chaos emerald, I looked at several more fiery worms that blocked the way. "Chaos…Blast!" The inferno knocked them backwards, destroying a few of them in the process. With that my body tore through the strange molten-lava and magma fusion. Eventually, my feet planted back onto green grass.

That was the most confusing part of this entire location. These fiery worms didn't seem to damage the landscape, only served to block the way. They also felt hollow, almost as if they weren't there.

"Shadow!"

Turning my head upwards, I could see the familiar set of wings and body fly overhead. Rouge.

"Rotor! He needs help!"

My orders had been to save Rouge, not go after anything else. Biting my tongue, I followed my teammate from a distance.

I'm not sure how long I followed her, angered by the fact that she was CONSTANTLY ahead of me. In part because I had to continue dealing with the strange fire creatures, which became more and more numerous as we went on, while she was flying high with no hindrances.

Rolling another boulder forward to clear the way, I had to notice the fact that suddenly, my GUN watch didn't work. The hands of the watch hadn't moved a bit, even through the sun had. "Something must be draining this place of all electric energy…"

"There!" Rouge pulled me out of my thoughts, landing on a floating field ahead of me. Some old robot parts were strewn about here, along with bullet holes in the ground foretelling of an old battle. But that was secondary now. The injured member was on the ground, his blood running freely out of his side, coating his fur. He looked at me, the warlus' eyes hollow. "Don't…bother…"

"Bullshit." I maliciously stated, bending down next to him. I looked at the wound in the side, it was damaged badly, part of a rock imbedded deep into his body. "Rouge, what happened? And I'm going to need a cloth."

"Where do you plan to get a cloth? And for your information, he fell off of loose rocks over their while trying to avoid one of those demons."

I looked at the mobian that I didn't even know, then back at Rouge. "Your catsuit."

"Hell, no."

"Rouge, now. Or he will lose his life."

She groaned, then reached down to her feet, yanking part of her catsuit off around her legs. I took the cloth, and began applying pressure to the warlus' sides, pushing hard while my other hand reached into the hole in his stomach. Feeling carefully, and applying pressure all the time.

"Can you save him Shadow?"

"Honestly Rouge, I'm amazed that you didn't try to do anything. I have less Medical experience then you. I'm an assassin and a living weapon. I'm not a doctor."

"Um…to be honest Shadow…" I turned my head briefly to look at her as she scratched the back of her head nervously. "I cheated on the medical part of my exams to get into GUN."

With a hard, solid pull, the rock came dislodged. Throwing the pointed piece of solid earth to the side, I reached in for my Chaos emerald. "This is going to hurt."

"Just…tell Sonic…evil…"

"I'm not going to talk to faker." Back-talking the warlus, I set the Chaos Emerald in the center of the wound, hoping that the Chaos Energy it would release would be released fast enough.

"Tell…him…I saw it…evil…"

"Shut up." I looked back up into his eyes, hoping that a stare from me would be enough to shut him up. However, his eyes were rolled to the top of his sockets, his tongue half-hanging out of his mouth, stuck to one of his tusks. "Dang it Rouge. He's to far gone."

"But your emerald! It's healing his wounds!"

"He's to far gone mentally. His brain doesn't recognize that he's being healed!" I looked at her again. "What the hell did he see?"

She said nothing, just giving off a simple shrug. That was her way of avoiding questions from me. "Rouge, answer me now!"

"I'm not going to say anything on the matter."

Ignoring her again for the time being, I put my hand on his forehead. Cold. Reaching back for the Chaos Emerald, I realized what the problem was. The arteries and veins that had been split were already merged back together, but the damage to his organs was to complex for the Emerald to heal fast enough. 'Danm it'. "Rouge, I can't save him!"

"You have any idea how my record will be scarred if he dies?"

"That's all he is to you, huh? Just an extra mark on your records. Just like me and Omega." I removed the emerald. "I can't save him. He's lost to much blood, and before long it is going to pool in his body. Holding the emerald, I set it right on top of his forehead.

"Rotor, any last words?"

He said nothing, just staring out into space.

"Guess not." With a brief flash, and an overload of Chaos energy, I shut his brain off, ending his technical life.

"You killed him!"

"Better a quick death then a painful one." I remarked back. "Maybe if you had taken your medic classes while training for GUN you could of saved your record."

"Well, maybe if you weren't such a genocidal maniac, you could of saved him!" She shouted back at me.

"Explain yourself." I growled at her.

"I'm sure you remember blasting a hole in the moon." My eyes just stared at her stoically. "Well, the largest of the moon fragments crashed here, and if you don't know, I might want to tell you that this place, which was already messed up, had it's balance of life and stability of formations destroyed. And not to mention those fire worm things, which conveniently appeared here afterwards."

A slight pang of guilt.

"What's in the past is in the past." Spinning around on my heels, I started walking down the broken path. "Let me guess, you want me to take you to the pick-up point."

She nodded cockily, almost as if she just forgot the entire prior incident. "Of course handsome."

"Shut up."

* * *

Standing up, I coughed wildly. I didn't know how long I had been out that time, but it was long enough that the sun had moved into the sky. Quickly, I brushed the dirt off of my dress, looking around for anyone else.

It seemed as if everyone else that had been in the crowd with me was gone…or buried under the rubble. I couldn't tell, and I didn't want to. Pain shot up my left leg as I stepped forward, and I fell to all fours from the unexpected jolt. Moving back to a sitting position, I ran my hand across the leg, noticing little more on it except for a twisted ankle.

"Now, of all times!" A grunt of anger escape while I pushed myself back up. Again, I glanced around the leveled landscape, trying to find anything that looked familiar. Buildings were leveled, their rubble almost completely covering the roads, cars were overturned and some of them were burning, while others were covered in the shattered rubble.

'This is war'. Hobbling forward more cautiously, my leg continued sending messages of pain to me. They would have to be ignored if I was going to get anywhere…at all.

The sound of a helicopter was heard behind me, and a shiny, camo-colored helicopter landed behind me, kicking up all sorts of dust and debris. Several solider rushed out, an assortment of human and mobian.

A slightly familiar face walked up, wearing a bright purple suit decorated in medals and his hat and hair combed in a way similar to the former nation of France. "You are Amy Rosalyn, no?"

"Ye-yes." I said, confused. "But it's really just Amy Rose!" I shouted over the still spinning helicopter blades.

"You're the one we are looking for. My name is Antoine, Captain of the Royal Guard, and fifth in line to the throne of Mobius! Get in the chopper, please!" His thick French Accent lacing his request.

I looked at him in slight confusion. Still, it would get me out of this place, and to somewhere safe maybe. Agreeing for that reason alone, I stepped forward, and he took my hand, 'escorting' me to the chopper as the last of the soldiers jumped out.

* * *

"I'm sure your asking yourself questions, aren't you?"

I grunted in response.

"I might be able to answer some of them, you know…"

"And what would you get out of it?"

The malicious bat chuckled in response. "I'm sure you'll repay me later. First up, I bet your wondering how Rotor even knows Sonic."

"I don't care."

"I'll say anyways. Remember in history studies about how Robotnik had taken over most of the European continent, including what consists of modern day Mobius. Well, The resistance was made up of Tails, Sonic, Her Majesty Queen Sally, and some other assorted characters, including Rotor."

I would of shut her out, but this was interesting.

"When they finally removed Robotnik from power and the individual nations of Europe came back together, then-princess Sally inherited the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, and renamed it Mobius from the large import of Mobians into that country. Everyone went their own ways outside of that. Rotor wanted his technology to be used, and so he joined the GUN, that was, back when it was still owned by the United Federations. However…"

"I don't care."

"You'll care about this part quite a bit. Rotor discovered that GUN was politically corrupt, all the way to the top. And that secrets were being kept…secrets that are so classified most people don't know about them. Like you."

I stopped, and looked at her. "That was in the late 90's?"

"Yes. Actually, he invented the next line of GUN mechs. He tried separating himself from the organization after you tried destroying earth, and…"

Again, I stared. How many other people lives did I damage, just being re-awakened?

"However, they forced him to stay. So, he looked for a good partner…me."

"And he disclosed all this information to you?"

"Some of it. I can hack a computer and steal notebooks. Right now, we were sent by GUN after one of their Top-Secret artifacts: this."

Turning around, she reached into the bag she had lazily slung over her shoulder. With a light tug, she pulled out a scepter, the top showing four Egyptian Jackal-Heads pointing in four opposite directions. It glowed with a purplish-red aurua.

"What is that?"

"It Is known as the Scepter of Darkness." The voice called out, and it wasn't Rouge's. Getting into a fighting stance, I watched as a platform landed. "It is surely a pleasure to meet you, Shadow the Hedgehog."

I stared at the human confused. "Who the hell are you?" He was a bit taller then me, his face abnormally shaped, wearing a black cloak and a mechanic monicle covering one of his eyes.

"My name is Snively Robotnik. Dr. Robotnik's cousin, and your Dr. Robotnik's grandson."

"What?" Maria never had any siblings, at least, not that I knew of.

"Anyway, the master has sent me on special business. Mistress Rouge…" He walked forward to her and kissed her hand, trying to be a stuck-up I suppose. "…Would you kindly hand over the Scepter of Darkness?"

"Thanks for the kind offer, but no thanks." She winked at him.

"I see. Well, if that's the case, then I'll have to use force." He tapped the side of his monicle, and the sound of various machines could be heard. They resembled the GUN walkers from my Revenge-Driven lust in 2002, but were grayish and had two machine guns for arms along with jetpacks on their back. The Doctor's face was clearly printed on it's forehead. They landed, holding up their arms while the long strings of ammunition hung from their arms with the ends coiling on the ground. "Attack!"

Jumping into the air and curling into a ball, I did a quick spindash into one of them, knocking it's head off. Before the others could re-acquire me as a target, I yanked the arms off the robot, and squeezed the trigger wires. The bullets ricocheted into each and every robot, and harmlessly bounced off.

"Yes, I forgot to tell you. The Master Robotnik knows about your fancy for guns, so he made these robots specially bullet-proof."

Jumping back and forth amidst the hail of bullets, and casting another glance the quickly winding coils, a plan formed in my head. Curling into a ball again, I rolled around each and every one of them, being sure not to hit any of them, just circle them. The sound of bullets trailing me became ever so much closer, and I could of sworn one grazed my temple.

And then the whirring sound stopped. Uncurling back into an upright position, the robots dropped their guns as 3 foot blades extended from their wrists. They began to charge, and I couldn't help but smile as one of their head suddenly snapped off in an shower of debris.

Rouge jumped into the air, spun around again, and slammed her steel-toed boots into another Robot's head, knocking it clean off as it fell to the ground. Using the Chaos Emerald I had on me, I powered up a single Chaos Spear, shooting it at one of the robots and diverting the other's attention, allowing me 'teammate' to take out the rest of them.

"Impressive. Quite impressive actually." Snively clapped lightly. "Round two."

Several more robots dropped down, in the same formation as last time. "Honestly?" Again, they fired their guns, and I began to avoid…

But they weren't firing at me. Rouge shot into the air, and they turned their guns upward toward her. I knew from our adventures this spring, she was not as adept at avoidance from multiple attacks as I was, even through she was still good.

I launched forward, smashing two robots in half with my fists, then jumping and smashing onto each and every other one's head. These robots were frail, and just seemed to disintegrate under my power.

"No!" Looking up, Rouge twirled around, and the bag with the Scepter of Darkness fell downward to the ground. "Shadow! Get it!"

I ran toward it, but before I could get there, gravity took it's full effect, and slammed the 'scepter' into the ground. It shattered into three pieces, the stem, and two sets of Jackal heads. The robots all stopped firing, out of bullets again, and I looked up at Rouge flatly.

"No! You destroyed it!" Snively ran past me, grabbing the pieces. As soon as his hand touched, he lurched back like he had been electrocuted.

From the pieces arose…something…not real. It felt hot, blisteringly so, as it blew by me. It 'moved' toward the Doctor's assistant, and he screamed in pain, whirling about wildly on the ground as the thing encircled him. His skin and flesh were burned and charred.

"Oh…my…gosh…" Rouge called from above. Suddenly, the red mass of energy vanished, and the wounded human crawled to the hovercraft he had arrived in. "Must…get to Doctor…AOOOOWWWW!" He clutched his chest, gasping in pain while crawling forward.

"What…in the hell?"

The robots that surrounded us, which had been standing by idly, suddenly exploded into pieces. "The hell?"

Another strange object rose from the shattered pieces, and rushed toward Snively. But one thing was between him and it…me.

Tackled to the ground, the cold, alien sensation engulfed my body, suffocating me, chilling every bone and making every hair bristle on end. I was deaf, blind, thrashing around as wildly as the man had earlier.

A voice. Cold and Demonic. "How ironic. You were the one who left me with nothing, and now you will give me your very body…"

Darkness overtook my brain. Images of Rouge, Black Doom, the Doctor, Sonic, Chaos Emeralds, Gerald. Then Amy's face appeared, and finally, Maria's. This entity would not kill me!

"Chaos BLAST!" A crescendo of chaotic fire and flame left my body, tearing the black ghastly substance off of me. My mind cleared, and the world returned. Instantly, I jumped into a fighting stance, readying a Chaos Spear.

The black substance circled the air, suddenly crashing in front of me, melting into a small puddle of goo.

"Shadow…what is it?" Rouge asked, descending behind me. Before either of us could answer, the black 'goo' shifted into a vertical stance, legs, arms, body all becoming defined, a charcoal black with dark yellow rings over it's ankles and wrists, gray gloves and shoes, and gray chest pattern where my fur would have been located. The head suddenly formed, and I leapt back in shock. IT looked just like me except for three things. Where red was on me, it was gray on this creature, it had no mouth, and it's eyes were green. Not Sonic's emerald green, but a sickly green that gave me a chill.

"Mwahahaha! How do you like my new form Shadow!?" IT shouted with a deep, echoing voice. Telepathic probably, as it had no mouth. "It's designed off of you!"

"Who are you? And how do you know I'm Shadow!?"

It's head leaned forward, as if it's neck couldn't support it. "I know lots about you Shadow. That split second I was in your mind, I learned everything. Your past, your present. Maria, Omega, your stash of ammunition and guns that you keep in every country on earth. I even know things about you that you don't. Who you care about more then anyone else." He laughed darkly again, stepping closer toward me and turning it's head to where it's green eye looked up at me. "As for who I am, my name is Mephilis! Mephilis the Dark! Prince of the Demons! Lord Hasatan's best and finest time traveler!"

What the? Hasatan? Demons?

"And now, Shadow, I will give you what you gave me back then. A one-way ticket to total annihilation!" It raised it's hand, and I leapt back again, landing beside Rouge. The demon suddenly formed a huge sphere of pulsating purple energy around all three of us, and in a flash, the world blurred around Rouge and I, while Mephilis seemingly disappeared.

The blur suddenly stopped, and I looked over at Rouge, who shook her head. "What was that?" She asked, feeling her arms and legs to make sure she was still in one piece.

I knew the power. "Chaos Control…but without an emerald." My eyes scanned the scenery. Decimated buildings and the like covered the area, lava flows could be seen all across the expanse. "If I didn't know better, I'd call this place Hell." Coolly, I chuckled sarcastically. "I should retire here."

* * *

I have to really apologize for this. I'm am pretty disappointed. I said I'd be working on other things, but Writer's Block hit me on just about every story, and I had typed next to nothing on any of my fics. Sadly, I wanted to expand on Amy's story so much, and I know where I want to go with her, but I had no way to really get it going!

Next up, Silver and Blaze! That will be a long chapter, no doubt about it! I hope you enjoyed this one! REVIEW!


	4. Seperated at Time

Welcome to the next chapter of Demonic Madness! Folks, another big thanks go to you!

Now we are going to see the stories of our favorite Telekinetic Hedgie and Pyrokinetic feline! I hope you'll enjoy this one! HERE WE GO!

* * *

I stood up, slowly, trying not to over-exert myself. The battle had taken a lot out of me, and it was hard to look without seeing spots.

"I-I" Blaze heaved again. "I think we've stopped it for now."

"That doesn't matter. In a few hours it will rise from it's own ashes again." Standing up and holding a rock in my hand, I angrily tossed it into a small fragment of a wall. "Danm it!" Slamming my fists into it, I asked the same question I had been asking for...a long time. "It never ends! How the hell are we going to completely destroy that monster!?"

A moment of hearing nothing but crackling fires.

"I don't have the answer Silver."

"What are we even fighting for anyway? The entire world is like this place, and for all we know, there are probably no other living beings on this planet! What happens when we finally die?" Shutting my eyes tightly, trying to block out the tears. "How can we totally destroy Iblis? If we are to have any offspring, how can they survive in a world like this!?"

She sighed again, but remained silent. More crackling fires could be heard.

"By knowing your enemy in every way possible." The voice was deep, way to deep for Blaze or I. I spun around, looking for the source. "Up here." Turning our heads upward, I gasped in shock. Another 'living' being. It was totally black, as if it was covered in ash. It had a body-build somewhat similar to mine, but it's hair was more laid back then mine. "My name is Mephilis. Mephilis the Dark." The being raised it's arms skyward. "You see, everything has an origin. Like a flower comes from a seed and a chicken comes from an egg, every living thing has a beginning."

No one said anything for a minute besides the crackling fires. "…what does a seed look like, or an egg?" I asked.

Mephilis threw his head back, laughing. "Oh my gosh! The world's greatest warrior, and he doesn't know what a seed is?" I glanced at Blaze, who returned my glance and shrugged her shoulders. "It looks very small, sometimes oval-shaped. You put it in healthy ground and give it water, and then it becomes a flower."

It had been at least 12 years since I had seen a flower. And that flower had been 'dead'. Apparently, there once were millions of those on the earth, bright and colorful, but that was a distant past.

"You would need to find the being who originally caused this catastrophe. You fight the flames of Iblis, and he or she would be the Iblis Trigger."

"Are you saying that he is still alive?" Blaze asked, looking more shocked then ever.

The head of the creature bent down, looking at us. That was when I realized he didn't have a mouth. "No. He died from a consequence of his own actions."

"Then how are we going to keep him from doing this?" I asked, waving my arms at the oh-so-familiar landscape I had always known.

"Simple. By going into the past and exterminating him."

"WHAT!?" Our voices shouted at him simultaneously.

"Yes."

"We have to go back in time and kill a person?! Do you know what that could do to the population!?"

He laughed again. "How naive. At that point in time, there were 6 Billion conscious being such as you two on earth. One death wouldn't even remotely change the scale."

"It's still a life! Life is precious!"

Mephilis looked down at Blaze, cocking his head. "I would expect talk like that from one who was raised into a royal family."

"How do you know that!?" She asked, striking an angry chord.

"I know a lot about you two. Come with me, and I'll explain things to you."

* * *

Something kept nagging the back of my mind. This was to convenient. Why show up now, not several years prior? Why didn't he take care of this himself?

"I am not like either of you. As you can probably tell, my body is not 'bound' by the same physics that rule your bodies. I never tire, I am only slightly affected by gravity, and I don't have a mouth."

I glanced at Silver, who ran his hands through his quills. "Then what are you?"

"Princess Blaze, I am a Time-Traveler, that is how I know this information. I am not a physical being such as yourselves, rather, I am…spiritual."

"What?" Silver's voice portrayed my own confusion.

"What makes you 'you', your personality, and the way you reason decisions. That is your 'spirit'. It is bound within your fleshy bodies. I am a spirit that lacks a body. But I have what you need to save the future, your present."

He showed us the dull, blank glass. A small ball of purple energy radiated out of his hand, and floated to the glass. Suddenly, it flashed alive, showing colors and words that we hadn't seen for a few years. "This database was last updated 20 years ago, right before the Iblis Trigger sent this world to the existence it currently has. I will send you two 20 years into the past, right before the incident, to kill the Iblis Trigger."

"But it's a life!" I protested yet again.

"Rather one life, or countless Billions?"

I caught my tongue. Billions. I had never seen more then 50 or so people in my life, and only two in the last 10 years, Silver and this Mephilis person.

"If we kill this guy, can this present be reversed?"

The being shifted his head up and down. "The Day of Disaster. October 7th 2006." Pressing another button on the computer, a new image popped up on the screen.

The image showed a blue hedgehog, somewhat similar to Silver. Spikes on his back, but the spikes on his head were all blown back. He wore what would was known as 'SOAP' shoes, and his eyes were a shiny, bright green, wearing white gloves.

"That is the being who caused this disaster."

"That blue hedgehog is the Iblis trigger?"

"A blue hedgehog…" Repeating the description slowly to myself, it opened one more question.

"Why can't you kill him yourself?"

Mephilis chuckled darkly. "Two of you would work better then I. Besides, There are other matters in time that is pressing on me."

I looked at Silver one more time. "Blaze, we swore an oath to each other to fight side by side and destroy Iblis and his flaming demons! We can now do that!" I sighed, looking again at Mephilis, then back at Silver. Despite how 'wrong' it sounded to kill to save, this might be our only chance. "Let's do it."

"Brilliant. I'll send you two 20 years ago, about 12 days before the start of the Day of Disaster." He held up his hands, and a purple sphere of energy expanded, surrounding the two of us. I went to reach for Silver's hands, but before I could, everything blurred in colors of red, gray, black, and purple. It was a queer sensation, time-traveling. As everything blew by me, everything felt eerily warm and soft, to the point that it made me want to end this experience as fast as possible.

Suddenly, the blue of colors stopped, and bright blue opened up around me. I began falling down, and my eyes cast to the ground, a shiny mixture of gray, yellow, and white. I curled into a ball, spun around, and landed on all fours.

"Silver!?" Standing up again on my legs, I glanced around again. "Silver!?" He wasn't there. "Dang it. We must of gotten separated."

My nose flared, and for the first time, I smelt pure, undiluted air. The air was clean, crisp, like it had lured me out of a deep slumber. Looking at my new surroundings again, I saw something I had never had a severe need for, but had always looked for, in vast quantities.

"Water…" I broke into a run, running beside the 'beach' as they were called. The water was smacking to my left, while a clean, white building could be seen against my right side. Several people were walking around, even Mobians who weren't to dissimilar from Silver and I. Running up a dock, I walked onto…a spring pad?

It was strange, but suddenly I was on all fours, on a different section of a dock. I glanced back to look at the 6 or 7 red springs I had bounced off of to get me here. Standing up and looking about curiously, I walked forward along the dock, making sure not to do anything else foolish. Being a little more cautious now, I moved on to the dock, noticing a few crumbled rock formations and some other 'boost pads'. Almost as soon as I stepped on them they propelled me forward, almost out of control. I had no idea where I was going, but I would need to find Silver at some point in time.

Landing on a wooden dock, I looked around in confusion. "What the…?" I heard something snap, my ear twitching. Readying a fireball in my hand, I looked around for the possible enemy.

The dock suddenly gave way beneath me. Jumping backwards in shock, I watched as the large black and white animal leapt out of the water, and crashed onto the dock I had been standing on not a second earlier. Quickly, I turned around and ran, unable to do any damage to a creature that was destroying the platform I was on, as any fire I could start would be put out when it dived back into the water.

Turning a sharp corner, I could see not one, but four different such beasts trying to smash me underfoot. Running another corner as fast as I could, I cast one more glance over my shoulder. Two of the animals shot out of the water, crashing into the dock right behind me as I landed on another 'boost' pad. Hitting it and flipping over in the air, I landed…on sand again.

Looking back, I could see the creatures behind me, bellowing angrily as they leapt out of the water. "What…a vicious cycle of life."

* * *

I jumped off the roof of another building, looking around quickly again for the character that had passed me earlier. Mephilis should of told me that the hedgehog had super speed, there was no way on earth I could keep up with him!

Again, taking a break from the constant searching, I listened. Listened to absolutely nothing. There was no sound of burning fires. The only thing I could hear was the sound of the wind as it drifted across the houses, and the sound of the insects, millions of them everywhere!

All it did was motivate me. Made me want to work harder for the salvation of the future. I wasn't sure totally if Mephilis was right, but it was the best chance we would ever get!

I heard some heaving. Looking to my side, I saw him! The Iblis trigger, almost exactly how he looked in the computer image. However, the real thing had some differences. There was a solidified cut above his temple, dried blood caked the side of his face. He had a burn mark on one of his gloves, and he was now very, very much, out of breath.

'This is my chance!' Readying a ball of telekinetic energy, I tossed it at him, hoping to disorient him. Before it slammed into his side as he was panting, his eyes turned to look at my projectile, and he leapt to the side. "Dude! What the hell!?"

"I've been looking for you, Iblis Trigger! Prepare to meet your doom!"

He raised an eyebrow, looking at me in total confusion. "Who…what…who are you!?"

I walked forward, readying another ball of telekinetic energy. "My name is Silver! And I will be your executioner!"

Channeling the telekinetic energy into my hands again, I searched out, grabbing nearby 'chairs' and 'tables' as they were called with my mind. "I guess you aren't here to talk!" The Iblis Trigger remarked. "I don't have time for this, but if you insi-" I slammed all of the objects into him instantly. The wood splintered and my opponent fell onto his back. "What…was that?"

I didn't need to answer him. Reaching out again, I felt for something larger, a nearby truck. The machine flew into the air, and then smashed right next to him. He only avoided it by rolling out of the way. Jumping onto all fours, he charged at me, jumping into the air. My mental waves tried latching to him, but he blew right by them. I was suddenly sliding on my back, my head grinding against the ground.

Before he could do that same attack again, I grabbed him this time, stopping him in midair. With a wave of my arm, I tossed my opponent into the wall of a nearby building. With an 'oof' and the sound of something cracking, he smacked into the building, falling down as a hedgehog-shaped imprint was left on the bricks.

Again, I grabbed some nearby objects, pulling a flowerpot of clay, a ladder, and a business sign. He dodge out of the way of the first two, only for me to slam the flowerpot right onto his head after I circled it around his back. With a groan in pain, he fell to the ground. Reaching with my mind again, I coated him in telekinetic energy. I could feel him, trying to fight it.

"Stop your fighting! I will kill you!" I shouted. He still resisted. I tightened my grip on his chest and neck.

"IT'S NO USE!" I shouted with extreme fury at him, crushing my opponent bit by bit.

* * *

Ah yes. Definitely a great fight scene, and a great ending line. I love watching Sonic 06 Silver Vs. Sonic battles. They are just so epic! And no, I'm not going to write in any crazy glitches in this game unless it makes sense. Thanks to the late Michael Jackson, his music gave me the inspiration to finish this!

Anyways, this is also, officially, my three-year anniversary on this site!

Next time, more from Sonic and Sally's POV, including well…I shouldn't tell you.

Please review. If you don't like, flame. But Silver has one thing to say about flames. "IT'S NO USE!"


	5. Escapades

Thanks again to everyone who has enjoyed this story up to this point. Time to continue this cycle. Sonic and Sally come up again. However, I had done two sections in Sonic's POV last time, and one from Sally's. Reverse that. And yes, that will be the pattern of the entire story for some time.

Enjoy, because HERE WE GO!

* * *

Now with the electric cuffs back in front of my body rather then behind it, I could work very well. I had studied some 'Yoga' along with self-defense classes. They kept my body limber enough, and it helped in getting my arms under my legs and back to my front. Making a mental note, I would have to thank my instructor. But first, to study my surroundings.

IT was not much. There was a small window on one side that metallic bars running across it in a X shape fashion. I was wearing electric cuffs, and they would short-circuit anything I touched. I couldn't communicate with NICOLE, my handheld link to her was in the bust of the torn dress I was wearing and to get it without removing the cuffs first would cause a problem.

The wall with the window and the other two were simply steel walls. The only other 'side' of the cell I was in was open, and I could of just walked through, if electricity wasn't flowing freely from the top of the doorframe to the bottom in uneven, unpredictable flows.

"I'm only going to get one chance at this." Walking up to the electrified 'doorframe', I held my hands outward slowly, trying to get the electrical cuffs or the electrical door to short-circuit by inter-crossing their paths. "Okay god…if you even exist…" Before I could try to finish the sentence, the world blurred, and a sudden pain was felt in my head, along with a numbness that ran up my arms and ended behind my eye sockets.

Blink. Blink several more times. The world was tinted black, and slowly spiraling toward me, yet despite the movement it never seemed to change position. I could smell it. Smoke. Holding up my numbs arms and hands, I could see that the cuffs had been successfully decommissioned, although there was some burnt fur around my wrists and on my hand. I would need to overlook that for now. My arms directed themselves, tapping my chest as I tried to get them to get Nicole from the folds of my underclothing, but my arms felt like something distant, un-attached to myself. At least the world had stopped spinning.

Finally, after several minutes of fumbling, I found Nicole's handheld communicator. I had no idea where she was, but surely she could be of some assistance. "Nicole, do you read me?"

The familiar voice responded. "Present and accounted for Sally." The small screen showed her familiarly shiny Lynx face. Seemed like she was in the downtown area of a metropolis or something.

"I need to know how to…" I stopped myself there. Apparently when I short-circuited the cuffs, it did the same to the electrical door. Now there was nothing but a smoking doorframe, hanging outward and beckoning me to exit through it. "…Um…my coordinates?"

"Current Location, Northern Italy, 15 miles away from the Mobius/Italian Border."

"The fastest way out of here?"

"North by Northwest."

"How soon until Sundown?"

"Sundown in approximately 2 hours, 11 minutes, 54 seconds." The face raised an eyebrow. "Where are you anyways?"

"No time Nicole. I'm sure your aware of the Terrorist attack against Mobiotropolis just yesterday?"

The nanite-composed being looked confused. "Terrorist attack? You mean war?"

"War?" Stepping out of my cell and looking around at the otherwise empty cells, I had to ask. "What do you mean war?"

"Mobiotropolis is 92 percent leveled at last calculation. The official Royal Army and Citizen Milita is all but annihilated."

I gasped. "The government leaders?"

"Captain of the Royal Guard, Antoine Depardieu Currently is in command of the Rump Government. Bunnie Rabbot, Queen's Primary Advisor, currently second-in-command and is holding military command. Denise is currently parliamentary leader, even though there is no remaining parliament members, and Elias Acorn is on his return to Mobius."

"Nicole! Tell me that's not it! The Mobian Government has over 400 members!"

"Only those four are confirmed alive and serving the government."

I screamed in anger, punching one of the cement walls. "How! How the hell did Robotnik become so ...effective against us!?"

"Well, for one, it's no secret where all the members of the government live. It was your idea that if the citizens were unhappy with the members of government, that they would have easy contact to the members of government and parliament. Robotnik probably took that information. Also, nearly every member of the government was in Mobiotropolis at the time of the attack, celebrating the Jewish New Year with their Queen. All of their residencies were burned to the ground also. To ad-"

"Danm it! Nicole, Send a message to the Rump Government! Tell them that I am alive and very willing to regain control of the government as soon as I return!"

"Yes Queen Sally. A certain female was rescued from Mobiotropolis. She says you would know her. Amy M. Rosaline. Is the na-"

"Amy's safe? Oh, thank Chaos!" Sadly, I had forgotten about the girl that I had, at one point, viewed as my younger sister. "Nicole, what about Sonic Maurice Hedgehog?"

"Current Location, New Varnice."

"What the hell is he doing there?"

"He had been on a southern course, most likely to recapture you, however, he may have been distracted by something."

"Whatever it was, it was probably a stupid meal. Stay online just a bit, I might need some guidance through this lair."

"One minute Sally." Through the image I could see the nanites that composed Nicole separate. The screen went blank, and the machine glowed bright green, scanning the lair. "Exit route, ahead."

"God Bless you NICOLE. You have probably twenty times the brain Sonic dreams of."

"Warning. New Varnice. Missile Impact. 17-16-15-" I wondered for a brief moment one thing: "What kind of missile?"

* * *

"IT'S NO USE!" There was to much pain. Never before…

"ngahh!"

I could barely see, my vision was turning shiny white. His eyes were narrowed intensely, filled with a thirst for judgment…

A loud vibration rocked the place, along with a stunning boom. Suddenly I was tossed onto the ground, rolling several times and gasping for breath. My opponent turned his attention away from me and toward the source of the sound. Several buildings around us collapsed in some parts, roofs caving in, doors falling down. An eerie red light filled the place.

I turned my head sideways to look at the source of the noise and the light. The seen was the most ominous I had seen in my life. A huge, fiery red cloud rose into the sky as a plume, a similarly colored 'stalk' pushing it into the air as rays of destructive energy flowed into the air.

"Hydrogen…Bomb." I called out to myself, gasping in shock. The second shock-wave, made of wind from the blast site, would hit anytime. Immediately, I pulled myself off the ground, turning around to try and run, even if I was in worse condition then before.

"Don't you DARE turn your back on ME!" Another bolt of energy slammed into my back just as I got both of my feet on the ground, and I fell onto my front again. "I still have to elimina-huh?" He turned around. We could both hear it. The Wind-wave. He threw up another green aura around him, a shield to protect him from the blast. I didn't have that option. Getting up as fast as I could, I smacked my feet together, curling into a ball and spinning wildly in one place.

Before the wave hit me, I let it rip. My Light Speed Dash normally only worked in a trail of defined objects, enemies or maybe if a bunch of circular hoops were left about. Without guidance, it was undirected speed, faster then I could of ever gone on my own, and it wouldn't stop until gravity finally slowed me down. With stunning force, I shot outward, cutting a gouge in the stone ground and away from the blast site, away from the wind-driven shockwave, and away from the radiation that would result afterwards.

Like almost any other time, I had no idea when I stopped doing an undirected LSD. I found myself in a field of grass, the sun out in the distance and all around me nothing but grass… And a cow, to my side, looking at me as it chewed it's cud.

"Where am I?" Standing up slowly, careful not to injure myself any farther or to irritate my sore joints, I looked around yet again. I ran southward, I know that much for sure. But outside of the fact that I was amongst some grazing lands for cattle, I didn't know if I had gone to far, not far enough, or what. One thing was for sure, I was a long distance away from the Nuclear Blast site, and my now-dead opponent. Nobody could possibly survive two shock-waves and radiation exposure that close to the impact site!

Casting my head side to side, I tried to get my bearings. My only remaining choice might be to tear through here at Sound Speed for a while until I got to something, anything, that showed life. Or maybe I'd get lucky and even run to Eggman's base. "Ha. Imagine…that…" Looking into the sky I saw what appeared to be multiple flying ships. A bit like his 'Egg fleet' which always seemed more like a fish fleet to myself. All heading due north over my head, flying in sets of three.

"Way to give me directions Eggy! It's Juice'n'Jam time!" Being careful not to run at top speed and further damage my already sore body, I followed the fleet backwards to it's origin.

* * *

I trampled the shards of metal underfoot. "I'll get that Robotnik yet! Nuking all of my cities and now Invading MY country!" I heard the entire plan, more then that, I actually recorded it credit to Nicole. Problem was, it didn't make sense. Something about Solaris and the eternal flames. One thing was for sure, Snively sounded awfully scared of it. Carrying the bulky egg-rifle by my side, and trudging forward, there was only one way to go. North. Back to Mobius. "Nicole, how far am I from the base?"

"Approximately 5 miles Sally. Sunset will be in 13 minutes, 28 seconds."

"I'm not going fast enough. This stupid thing keeps slowing me down." Not to mention that the bright orange color of a gun as long as I was high was going to signal me out like nobody's business. Yet it was my only method of defending myself against the Egg Pawns and Swat-bots.

A loud boom ahead of me, and I was tossed onto my back. The tall grass around me whipped to the south from the Sonic Boom. "Sonic!" I called in happiness, then frowned. "Moron totally left me behind."

"Wanna eat your words Sally? I heard they taste great with Chili Dogs!" I leapt in shock more then anything else as the Blue blur stood behind me, flashing me his trademark smile that never changed and his thumbs-up.

"We need to get out of here! He's totally annihi-What happened to you? You weren't that torn up when I was captured."

"Yeah. You did a nice job of getting yourself out of there."

"Sonic! What did you do?"

"I chased after you as long as I could after I got Bunnie to a safe place. Headed south. Man, Robotnik likes to barbeque cities." He whistled. "None of those missiles seemed to have any BBQ sauce."

He was joking, trying to lighten me up. In an international crisis. "Sonic! This is serious! We need to get back to Mobius! I don't know how long it would take the United Federations or the United Nations to respond to this! We're on our own!"

"Yeah, but why does Eggman have a base here in Italy?"

"I don't know. I bet the Italian government doesn't know it either."

"Well, want me to carry you back North, or would you rather carry around that hunk of junk?"

I tossed the gun, quite poorly, to the side. "Let's go."

"Alrightee Sal!"

"Don't call me that." The heart skipped a beat, something that I would of preferred not to have happen. Why would I have to be so attracted to such a bull-headed idiot?

His arms scooped me up. "Hold on tight Sally! Next stop…Mobius…or what's left of it!"

A feeling I hadn't had for nearly 8 years whipped through my hair, fur, remains of a dress, and the like. The feeling of Wind rushing by me, caused my speed of one my closest, if not most annoying, teammate.

* * *

That concludes this chapter! Next time, Amy and Shadow's events. I hope you are enjoying this story, because by far, this has the most complex plot of anything I've written yet in three years. And to be honest, I still don't know exactly where I'm going with this. *chuckle*

I hope you enjoyed. Now type in that little box down there what you though of this.


	6. Explanations throughout Time

A big thanks to all the reviews! You guys are what inspires me to keep going on! Now we are going back to Shadow's and Amy's parts of the stories. A lot of plot is revealed here. I hope you'll enjoy this.

HERE WE GO!

* * *

I glanced around at everyone at the table. They all looked to be tight-lipped, almost afraid that saying something would disrupt it all. Word had come in a few hours ago that the Princess had escaped from Eggman's base, and Nicole told us that they should have been on their way here. Elias might have been the most tense of us all. I could of sworn that outside of breathing and blinking, he hadn't moved for several minutes. Denise was the only member that wasn't here, as while coming here her transport had been bombed from above, terminating her life.

I opened my mouth to say something when the door opened. "I'd like to re-present to you, Queen Sally Acorn and Sonic M. Hedgehog." Nicole moved out of the way of the door, and Sally stumbled in. The dress that I had seen her in last night torn in multiple areas, and a pair of old shackles on her wrists like bracelets. She had a blood-stain on her side, and mostly-dried sweat adorned her forehead.

"Sally!" I jumped up, scurrying around the table and embracing my 'emotional' sister. Wrapping my arms around her, I pulled her close, as close as I could. "I'm so glad your safe!"

"I am to Amy. I am to."

Sonic was a totally different story. A hardened scab had formed above his temple, his arms dangling uselessly at his sides, and his body was swollen in multiple areas. Through the thin fur on his stomach and chest, I could see multiple bruises.

"Sonic!" While Bunnie, Antoine, Denise, and Elias all congregated around Sally, I had to grab Sonic, more gently then usual from his terrible condition.

"Hey Ames." He sighed exhaustingly, while in my arms. "How's it going?"

"What happened to you?"

"Same thing that's happened to the nation. Just a black eye and a couple of bruises." He pulled out of my grasp and smiled cockily. "We'll both bounce back."

"Okay. Let the Joint Rump Government meeting begin." Just like her old self, Sally quickly ushered everyone to their seats. Even Nicole took a seat to Sally's left side, while Bunnie was to her right and Antonie to the cyborg's other side. Sonic walked to the head of the table opposite of Sally, and I sat beside Nicole.

"Monsieur! Sonic, You are not a member of the government?"

Sonic just smirked.

"Your majesty! I can't allow zees to go un-"

"Antoine, I think we can should let him in. As former leader of the Freedom Fighters, I hereby say that our years spent in separation are over. I think our team's disbandment needs to end, today. Everyone in this room, save for Elias, has the much-needed experience fighting Robotnik." Again, Sonic smirked, gingerly walking over to one of the seats and setting down in it. Everyone else took their seat.

"First, I need to know the state of the nation, and how this had impacted the rest of the world."

"Well…Sally girl…Every city with a population over 10,000 has been demolished. Of the three cities with populations of a quarter-million citizens or higher, two of them have been attacked by Nuclear Missiles. We estimate minimal survivors." She sighed. "Mobiotropolis is nothing but a giant debris field. All of our smaller towns seem to be safe for now, but as we speak Little Paris, with only a population of 8,000, is reporting aerial attacks."

"As you know, I just came back from being the ambassador to Russia. Before I left, all of the world's major currencies took a 20 percent dive in value. The Peso, Dollar, Yen, have experienced declines of well over 30 percent, and our own Mobiold currency has plummeted by 80 percent and falling rapidly. It might have no value now. Mobius is an important World Power, albeit a mostly isolated one. Such an attack has dire consequences against the rest of the world."

"Your Majesty, we all had agreed, before we knew you were alive, that we should call in foreign help. The United Kingdom, the United Federations, and most of the United Nations members agreed to send in water and air support." He sighed. "Sadly, of our military, we believe that 95 percent of our air-force has been eliminated, 70 percent of our Naval force remains, and our Ground force is spread very thin just trying to get any survivors."

The queen shook her head. "No, no, no, no, no!" Angrily, she ran her hands through her hair. "You're playing the world right into Robotnik's trap!"

The combined shout of: "What!?" filled the room.

Sonic just kicked back in his chair, slinging his dirty shoes on the table and clicking his tongue. "Sal told me all about it. She's right for once."

Sally cast a glare across the table. "Yes Sonic. And for the first time ever, YOU said something intelligible!" He smirked again, looking over his shoulder to a small mirror on a wall and examining his white teeth. I shook my head. The way they always fought was kinda funny. "Nicole recorded the entire conversation I overheard, and she can play it back for us, right Nicole?"

"So I shall Sally." She closed her eyes, and for a moment her nanites just hovered in one place, no moving whatsoever.

"Congratulations Snively! You've finally put yourself to good use!" As soon as we heard Eggman's voice, everyone leaped into the air. "Sir! Please! Get it out of me!" Grasping my breath, I sat down in my seat, consoling myself that it was only a recording.

"Nonsense! Once I free Solaris from inside of you, all of the world will bow to me! I won't have just Europe again, I'll have the entire WORLD!"

"Master…Robotnik! It…hurts…"

"As I was saying, after the currencies of the world crumble, every nation will rush to save the value of their dollars by trying to regain peace. However, I will annihilate all of their armies with Solaris' flames, and then the world will be defenseless as I conquer the entire world! No nation will be safe!"

"Master *cough* Robotnik…I"

"Silence you imbecil! I don't care how much it hurts! You've proven yourself to be expendable!"

"Nicole, cut the tape there."

Nicole shut her mouth, and the recording stopped. The room went silent. The governments had been played for a fool, and we were all going to pay for it. Whatever the 'Flames of Solaris' was, it was bound to be bad.

* * *

"There's one thing I don't understand Shadow." I glanced halfway over my shoulder at Rouge. "Why is that…Mephilis thing able to warp time and we are not?"

"We are only assuming it's a time warp."

"Still, why can't you do what he just did? You have an emerald?"

Sighing in disappointment, I turned around, holding it up. "These emeralds can bend time and warp space. However, it can't warp time and bend space. If Space is bent, the emeralds are destroyed, as is the fabric of the universe. If time is warped, then a unstoppable recurring of events occurs." That was more then I cared to say in a day.

"Then what can we do to get back?" I stayed quiet. "You have no idea how, do you?" Of course she could tell that. She had spent more time with me then anyone else, she was familiar enough with my body language.

"I am not like either of you. As you can probably tell, my body is not 'bound' by the same physics that rule your bodies. I never tire, I am only slightly affected by gravity, and I don't have a mouth." My ears twitched and eyes shot open. I could hear Mephilis' voice from inside an adjacent, dilapidated building.

Throwing a look at Rouge, but not bothering with a return-glance from her, I shot inside. "Then what are you?"

"Princess Blaze, I am a Time-Traveler, that is how I know this information. I am not a physical being such as yourselves, rather, I am…spiritual."

"What?" The white, ash-covered hedgehog's voice portrayed my own confusion about the existence of beings here.

"What makes you 'you', your personality, and the way you reason decisions. That is your 'spirit'. It is bound within your fleshy bodies. I am a spirit that lacks a body. But I have what you need to save the future, your present."

"Then what's your spirit like Shadow?" Rouge had caught up with me, looking around a corner, and nudged my ribs playfully.

"Shut up."

"If we kill this guy, can this present be reversed?" The white one asked in excitement.

The being shifted his head up and down. "The Day of Disaster. October 7th 2006." Pressing another button on the computer, a new image popped up on the screen. One of my rival, Sonic.

"God danm it." I whispered to myself. "He's going to kill or remove all of the major world-protectors, and then leave the world to control himself!"

"But if he did that, this future can't exist, can it?"

"We are only assuming that this is the future Rouge!" In a forced whisper, I had to explain one more thing. "How do we know that this future isn't caused by them succeeding?"

"Besides, There are other matters in time that is pressing on me." My attention was drawn back by Mephilis' voice. The other two raved about some 'oath' about destroying 'Iblis', and then Mephilis sent them to our 'past' the same way Rouge and I had arrived at this 'future'.

"More pressing matters in time to attend to indeed." He called out. A tap on my shoulder, and I turned to face Rouge. A fist sent my flying across the floor to where the Cat and Hedgehog had stood just a moment before. My partner slid up next to me, hit by a similar punch. "Shadow, I'm glad to see you know that part of the plan. But you think that I am going to try to send them to kill Sonic, and let me take over the world, don't you?"

"…" Standing up, I wiped some blood off of my mouth.

"But your wrong. I am very, very loyal to my master Hasatan. Allow me to explain this to you. Besides, who are you going to tell? You see Shadow, before time existed, there was a supreme, narcissistic being. It goes by many names, and had many servants. He, or they, liked having their ego's stroked by us. My master finally caught on-PPPWWWWWHHHHHHHHHH!" My fist slammed into Mephilis' rib cage, and he flew out of the building, and landed on the cracked pavement outside.

"I don't give a danm. You're posing a threat, and I need to eliminate you."

"I know that Shadow." With a leap, he jumped into the air, and ontop of a metal beam. "But I like this story. As I said, my master-" I threw a Chaos Spear up to the beam with the emerald I had, but he 'glided' through the air and out of the way, never reacting in fear. "-caught on that he was living like a slave, and convinced roughly a third of us to rebel. Well, one of his sections overwhelmed our abi-Close one there Shadow, but not close enough-GARRGH!"

He fell to the ground, and Rouge landed on him, planting her feet where his kidneys should be. But rather then react in pain, his body…liquefied for lack of a better term. The black liquid spun around Rouge's lower body, and then she was tossed into the air. The blackish-purple smacked into her airborne body, and carried her next to me, knocking her unconscious.

"That was unpleasant. Well Shadow, his spirit overwhelmed us, and his heads cast us out of his realm and into a relam of nothingness. I remember that well, because that was where I gained these abilities…" Liquefying again, his shapeless form plowed into my ribs and the momentum carried my into a wall, the hit he scored on me knocking the wind clean out of me.

"However, he made something out of nothing. Chaos out of nothing, and our dark world was filled with a bright white light and energy. The energy turned to matter, and that process helped start time. This super-being then formed large rocks, one which had special attention, this planet."

I tried roundhouse kicking him, but his body split in half around my foot, and then reformed. His body would reform around any punches, and simply separate around kicks. It was like attacking stationary water

"It took him '6' of these so called 'days' to create all of this. On each of these days he created a special stone, one of them being the one you are holding there, to hold this universe together. He made two of them on the 6th day. My master got a brilliant idea-Shadow, don't wear yourself out, you'll like this.

"Chaos BLAST!"

"Dark Chaos Shield."

Whatever it was he pulled up, it reflected my own attack back onto me, and I fell to the ground, damaged by my own attack. "Well Shadow, Hasatan decided to deceive these two beings that the narcissist created. It worked, but the being fought back." He wasn't affected slightly.

"We waged war against the being, and the 'humans' became pawns on both sides of the battle. We were winning. We had taken the human gene and successfully breed nearly every human with anything, keeping him from fulfill one of the 'vows' he held against us. What do you think that echidna species came from?"

I stopped, staring at him in confusion. "That's right. Hasatan and several other angels he was able to convince later to leave that being's service corrupted the human's gene pool severely. We created the original echidna race. Pouring a bit of all of our energy together, we created a giant stone that could overwhelm those same emeralds you have there. We called it the Master Emerald, and entrusted the echidnas to guard it. Various human pawns on his side that could use those gems were neutralized as our own gem could keep them from fighting us." He laughed darkly. I grabbed his head, and slammed my forehead into his.

And it hurt like fucking hell. "Shadow, pay attention. You will find this interesting." As I folded to the ground, he continued, not having moved for what seemed to be forever. "So the being that couldn't stand to lose wiped the board clean, like an angry five year old that throws all of the Chess Pieces off the board, except for his favorite. There had been a group of people we were unable to change, and he took them and 'preserved' the original human genome with it." His demonic growl echoed through my head.

"When he wiped the world out, he did it by water. However, one of the servants we took with us the first time was changed by the explosion. It became pure energy, incapable of thought, only capable of destruction. So my master came with a brilliant idea. He sent me forward in time to observe if he ever won without influencing the stream of time. Sadly, if I never intervened, I, my master, and all of my brethren would have been destroyed at the end of time. "

This confused me. Was this demon's entire account of the past…line up with that religious book Maria believed and swore on so much? The thing I mocked for being un-provable…this had to be a guise. Starting to stand up, I fell again, the Chaos Blast I had preformed earlier damaging my ribs badly and the pain rising with every passing moment.

"Hasatan wanted me to bond with Iblis, but before I could, you attacked me and defeated me! However, my master had thought ahead of that defeat.

"His back-up idea was to contain the demons, Iblis and I, into a small container like a time-resistant vacuum, waiting for the right thing to come and free me. When I was free, as was it, we would choose a strategic bonding point, and destroy not the world, but combine our abilities and destroy all of Time and Space! The ultimate board-cleanser! Our agents have infiltrated that so called 'heaven' and after we destroy time, we will go back there, and we will overthrow that weak god and his heads with our abilities!"

I looked at Rouge, still out cold. "You have got to be on drugs, or you have got to be danm-insane."

It laughed. "Shadow, you can't stop this! I brought you to this time to prevent you from influencing our bonding. While Silver and Blaze annihilate Sonic, I will be free to merge."

He kicked me again, and I slid into a different wall, this one crumbling from my impact and my head hanging perilously over a stream of lava. "But Shadow, we could stop this battle now. You see, echidnas aside, who were able to survive that great flood, all of these current man-animal hybrids, 'Mobians', are man-made. And to add to it, only of them is made perfect, beyond time and space." He brought his face right up next to mine, laying his body ontop of me. Honestly…this didn't feel right at all. "Shadow, your mortal body and mind are permanently fused with your immortal spirit. You are immortal, and a vessel of incredible power! Join us, and my lord will assure you a place of high importance in the next world we will create!"

This was to much. He wanted me to help him destroy, well, everything except himself and his 'companions'?! Insanity."I will accept."

"Excellent! Welcome to-"

I smirked. "I will accept your defeat at my hands!" With said hands, I pushed him off of me as gruffly as I could. He jumped into the air, somersaulted twice, and landed with his back to me. Standing up, and brushing my chest fur off, I said one thing. "If I truly am immortal as such, then I guess we might as well start fighting until the end of time."

"You can't hold me back forever fool." I rushed at him, and he moved out of the way. A punch, he would shift his head and torso un-naturally around it. A kick, his legs would mysteriously bend around it. "You know every move I'm going to make, and I know every move your going to make. Strange, isn't it?"

"Chaos Spear!"

"Dark Chaos Spear!" The energy collided in mid-air, exploding in a cloud of smoke and reddish-purple flame. "Dark Chaos Lance!"

That one caught me off guard, and I was smacked hard. My body flipped off the edge of the cement slab, and a burning hot feeling wrapped around me. I fell into the lava.

"So long Shadow. I hope you enjoy hell."

"Chaos BLAST!" I muttered, just before my near total lack of density drowned me in the very substance that was burning the fur right off of my body.

The explosion I caused landed me beside Rouge. Looking up, my eyes caught the glipse of Mephilis opening another time-portal for himself. I glanced at Rouge, and back at Mephilis. "Chaos Control!" Bending time rather then space, the demon super-slowly created a ball in his hands. My own hands grabbed Rouge's wrist, and crawling forward with my other hand, I moved toward the only escape that would be here, trying to keep my eyes locked on it despite the tiredness caused by the blood loss the lava caused.

He never saw us. Time slowed down to far, and despite my crawling and dragging, the fact that he was snail-pacing through time in comparison to us made us nearly impossible to see. That was one of the best perks of being the Ultimate Life Form. As our bodies 'entered' the time warp zone, the lack of energy caused by my wounds took it's toll, colors screeching by us until everything went black..

* * *

"Very interesting indeed." The dual-tailed fox admitted.

"How did you get in here!?"

"My dear princess Sally, through the front door and with an ID card."

I glanced at Tails, and then back at Sally.

"What can I say Sal? It's Tails! He can do anything I can't, which isn't much!"

I could see the kitsune roll his eyes at the ego-inflated hedgehog. "You guys are going to need some tech to help you with your entire plan. Do you honestly think you can break into Eggman's base with nothing but your fists?"

I could hear Bunnie crack her metallic knuckles very audibly as if to prove a point.

"Zen what can you do Tails?"

The 15 year old prodigy smiled smugly. Not smug like dear Sonikku, but more like a self-confidence and self-satisfaction from being right rather then from showing off.

"Upgrades, for lack of a better term." Opening the medium-sized suitcase he had brought with him, his eyes and our eyes scanned the interior of the container.

"Sonic, I'm sure you remember this." Not even looking up, he tossed a bracelet to our blue hero, and while several medics were bandaging wounds, his left hand caught it easily. "You kidding me? How could I not forget the Bounce Bracelet!"

"I'm also sure that the flame ring will spark your memory positively."

"Heck yeah!" With his other hand Tails tossed a crimson ring over toward Sonic, who again caught it with ease.

"Amy." Glancing at the sound of my name, he tossed a silver-ish hubcap thing to me. "That goes on the end of your hammer."

Grabbing it in confusion, my eyes looked at him, his face not even looking up. "…The heck for?"

"A more solid hit. Think. Would you rather get hit by hollow wood being hurled at you, or by pure Silver?" He had a good point. Silver would hurt more then wood.

"I would suggest not using it near water though. Precious Column VIIB metals sink fast." Nicole spoke up, casting her eyes over the structure.

"Sure…" I didn't understand what she meant, it all seemed Mongolian to me. Still, I set myself about to attaching the cap to one of the ends of my hammer.

"Sally." The dual-tailed fox pulled a belt out of the container and tossed it to her. "Once you get changed into clothing more suitable for this mission then a torn dress, the belt will come in handy. Those are EMP grenades."

Her remark consisted of one word. "Clever."

"Antoine…A more suitable sword?" He tossed a sheath and a sword to the captain of the guard, who caught it in a flash. "Why…it's lighter!"

"And not to mention the blade is thinner, and it is perfectly balance in the center. Perfect for slicing."

"Yeah, but let's see if he'll be man enough to use it!" Sonic's cocky remark was left mostly ignored.

"Bunnie…" His frown told us quite a bit. "I can't do that much for you. Any upgrades to your metal parts would take more time then what any of us have, so you'll have to make do with this." He reached out and handed her a ring that looked like a hoola-hoop and could of easily fit around her waist. "If you put it on from the top and move it down to your waist, it should provide a satisfactory illusion of a SwatBot."

"Well, I'd say it'll work fine for me Sugar Fox!" She wrapped it around her metallic arm, keeping it there probably because she wasn't wearing anything with pockets.

Elias was still at the table, with no equipment. "Sorry sir, but I didn't catch your name and the only other upgrades I have here would be for myself." Nervously Tail's rubbed the back of his head, grinning in slight embarrassment.

The chipmunk contently folded his hands. "As much as I'd like to help you, I think that someone needs to run the government, or what's left of it, while you all are gone." His gaze shifted, and I followed it back to his sister Sally.

"Very well then." She sighed. "I hope you know what you're doing." Her gaze was cast around to everyone else at the table. "Freedom Fighters, let's move out!"

"You mean Freedom Fighters 2.0, right?" Disapprovingly, she glanced back at Sonic as he stood up, a bandage covering his forehead and a cheeky grin stretching his face. The medics that had been around them already moving out of the room.

"Sometimes, I wonder if you make remarks like that just so you can tick me off."

"I like the name Sally!" I spoke up. "Sounds modern!"

She lowered her eyebrows. "Nicole, do you think you can accompany us?"

"Gladly Sally." Her nanites composing a smile about her form.

"Sonic, you know where the base is?"

"Sure! We'll make it back there by sunrise!"

"At our speed?"

"Um…midday?" A nervous smile overtook his face.

My sister's authoritative voice ushred us out for the last time. "Freedom Fighters '2.0', let's move out!"

* * *

GAHHH! I HATE THIS CHAPTER! I FEEL LIKE I SPENT ALL THIS TIME WRITING A PIECE OF TOTAL CRAP! To long, I felt like everyone was out of character, and every time I went back over it to see what seemed wrong, I couldn't find anything to change! Geez! Oh well, it's the reader that decides, and reader should be honest about if they like it or not!

Next time, again, It's Blaze and Silver. See what happened to our favorite telekinetic and pyrokinetic characters in the next chapter! But until then, review!


	7. An Air of Deceit about the Messenger

Here we are next chapter. Hopefully this one won't be as much of a pain to me as the others. Also, a huge thanks to 1Past and Present1 for reviewing, along with GloomyShadows and cardcaptornicole.

Well, HERE WE GO!

* * *

Another military aircraft soared overhead, the machine breaking the sound barrier. My ears twitched and laid back from the pain of the loud noise. Still, I continued running across the rocky plains, trying to find the one are that was talked about in that 'newspaper'. Images from the remains of New Varnice. They had surveillance photos in it of the 'Nuclear' blast, and one of them showed the two characters I was looking for.

A blue hedgehog and a silver-white one.

The entire ground I was running on was charred, and covered with black ash and soot. Remains of what had once been houses were strung about unevenly. What should have been the center of the city was father up ahead. But all I could see was more and more charred earth, with a handful of bent metal fencepost and flattened debris covering the ground. Still, at least that warming sun in the sky was here, unlike in my future, were ashes constantly blocked the sun out to a dim hue.

Something rose out of the flatness of the landscape otherwise. Lowering my running speed, I trained my eyes on the small 'blip' on the horizon.

It was a makeshift tent, and on its side was a military truck. I had seen countless numbers of those throughout this war-torn country. Apparently, we landed right in the middle of a giant war. Knocking the speed of my pace down to a walk, I eyed the 'shelter' quickly. Screaming and crying could be heard from inside, along with beeping noises that were getting on my nerves.

"Blaze!?"

I turned around, seeing Silver sitting on the side of the military deuce, one leg stretched out while the other was pulled up to him, his arms dangling over it. Despite a slight bruise on his chest, he looked fine. "Silver!"

Quickly he got back up, and pulled me into a compassionate, loving embrace. "I knew you'd show up!"

"Did you kill him?"

He pulled his head off of my shoulder. "I don't think so. The guy runs at least as fast as you do, if not more so. I could have caught up with him, but there was this insane blast that pretty much decimated everything here.

"I saw it in the papers. This place is a wasteland now."

"I know. Do you have any idea where he is?"

I shook my head negatively. "I'm still not sure if Mephilis is right."

"I know where you're going with this Blaze! Maybe he is telling the truth, and maybe he's not! We won't know unless we take the chance!"

I looked at him. "What if us killing him will cause our future to happen?"

He bit his tongue. "…I…I can't."

Another agonizing scream from inside the tent broke the air. My partner's ears twitched at the sound. "You think we could get out of here? That noise is driving me nuts!"

"You're not the only one." As fast as I could, I started running the way I had came, back toward the south. Over my shoulder I could see Silver levitating himself through the air, holding roughly even with me.

* * *

I took another blade of grass out of the ground. "Here's an idea. You run even with him as long as you can, and try to wear him out. When he finally gets tired, I can move in and choke him to death."

Still laying on the rock with her head propped up on her shoulder, she sighed in discontent. "If he's as fast as you say he is, we would leave you in the dust. You wouldn't catch us in time."

Another missile streaked across the sky over our heads. "Then how on earth can we even kill him? He's wise to my attacks and abilities now!"

"I already told you, I can still catch him."

"But you don't want to kill him, do you?"

She narrowed her eyes and turned her head from me. That was the truth, and I had hit a soft spot with her. "But you don't want to kill anybody either."

"I-"

"If you really had a grasp on him like you said you did, you could have just crushed him instantly. I've seen you fight against Iblis worms and shatter them mentally without a second thought." She paused to get me to think more on the situation. "You could have crushed flesh and blood even quicker."

".." In shame I turned my head away.

"Maybe the best way to kill him would be to use your strengths against his weaknesses and remove your distorted sense of life."

"Mephilis!?" IN shock Blaze and I were at the ready to face him. Unlike last time, when he seemingly 'appeared' above us, a black puddle formed amidst the grass, and then in a rising cloud of smoke took the form of the dark being.

"Like you two, he has weaknesses also. The Iblis Trigger has a strong weakness to hard, blunt attacks and extremes of heat and cold. Suffocation is possible, extreme acidity or alkalinity…" HHis snake eyes cast over both of us; however, he turned to face Blaze directly. "Come on idiots! Do some thinking of your own here. No great historical campaign went off without a hitch the first time around."

"Mephilis…" I had to echo Blaze's question, if only to disprove my inner 'feelings' of right and wrong. "Is it even right to kill someone for the benefit of others?"

Without moving anything below his neck, his head spun all the way around to face me. "Absolutely. You can find him South-East of here. In some type of a giant castle. This time, he may have assistance and help. You must prevent him from carrying out his goals there and then, or he will destroy the world."

"…" I glanced at Blaze. Something was wrong. It was just a little too convenient. "Why can't you kill him yourself?"

He didn't answer. His body melted away slowly into a black substance once more. "Hey! Get-" In anger I stomped the ground with my boot. "I don't trust Mephilis anymore. He must have some agenda, something he's not telling us."

Blaze crossed her arms, turning away from me. "Like you said earlier, he might have the only answer though."

"I know your right…but…I don't want to trade our future for one that might be even bleaker then what we have. At least we had each other, various places to lay our heads, and some sort of food and water."

"Your right Silver." She lit a fireball in her hand and tossed it back and forth between the two. "But if we have to keep Mephilis from fulfilling a dark motive, we can do it together."

I looked at the pyrokinetic strangely. "That's the most out of character thing you've said…ever." She glanced at me, re-absorbing the flames into her body. The gaze told me enough. "Okay, okay. Let's go Blaze. After you."

* * *

The orange-red castle rose from the ground as a stunningly large beacon. Various 'robots' and unmanned guns were spread across the outskirts of the castle, as if they had recently been cast here for a hasty defense with no order to them. The machinery was quickly destroyed. My own heat would ignite any ammunition the weapons held while Silver could crush any foes that resisted any fireballs.

"Is this all the past had to offer?" He asked an unimpressed tone deep in his voice while hovering behind me.

"I'm guessing that this place had plenty of heavier machinery farther inside." Running through the grass toward the massive location, I could see more and more robots, a few of them at least four times my size holding oversized hammers. "Silver, can you disarm the large robots farther ahead?"

"Way ahead of you Blaze!" His aura-covered forum zipped over mine. While several of the humanoid robots turned to face my partner and take a shot at him, I couldn't help but remember something I had learned earlier at that 'Emerald Coast' area that I had landed at. Cart wheeling overhead, I smashed my feet into one of the machines, jumping off of it and spiraling myself through the air, claws extended and flames dancing around them. My burning claws raked through another machine's head and destroyed it while I landed atop of one of the guns. Shooting a fireball through my hands at it, it exploded underfoot, launching me into the sky and landing me on the ground with a positive running start.

It was some time of running, Silver looked to have taken the liberty of clearing my way of enemies, but just in front of the Castle's doors were three huge robots. They were totally decked out in metal, one of them carrying an oversized hammer and trying to smash the telekinetic with it.

Jumping onto one of the hammer-less ones, I raked my claws over its exterior. While it seemed at first that the metal was impenetrable, the heat from the flames extending from my hands proved otherwise when I hit a joint. With ease, the bolts holding its arm on melted away. Somersaulting through the air I landed on the head of the machine, and wrapped my arms around its neck. Smoke rose from the joint, and its head fell off, effectively decapitating it.

A shadow cast over me, and the fists of the second hammer-less robots crashed through the air toward me. IN a hurry I leapt off, and it crushed the torso of its defunct companion. Running a circle around it, I used my speed to my advantage, trying to tie it up. It was trying to turn with me and smash me with underfoot, but the bulky machine was to slow. It soon was tangled up, and I threw several fireballs at the joints connecting its head to the body. Like the previous one, the bolts melted and severed it.

Just as that one broke the one that Silver had been dueling with suddenly exploded, and turning my head I could see Silver compact the machine to a small cube within a telekinetic force-field. With a mental toss it went to the grass field out behind us, and destroyed ourselves.

"The door…" I looked at the towering opening. Readying some flames in my hands, I placed my hands on the wooden beams, something that was conflicted terribly with the otherwise metallic walls of the fortress. Channeling heat through my hands, it quickly began smoking as I burned it from the inside out.

"Blaze. There is no need. Look." Turning my head I saw what Silver pointed at, several sets of shoes…one of them the familiar SOAP shoes that the Blue Hedgehog wore. The SOAP shoes led around a corner, where a smaller door hung open, obviously busted in, with several rails leading into the castle's dark underground levels.

"You still remember how to grind on one of these things?" I asked, looking at Silver.

"Of course. You were the one who taught me." He chuckled, and hopped on to one of them. Shrugging, I leaped onto the other one, lighting a pair of fireballs in my hands to light the way while Silver cast his faint, green telekinetic glow on the area around him. Like two final beacons of light, we descended into the dark folds of the unknown.

* * *

Short compared to the others, but I am VERY SATISFIED with this chapter for once! Anyways, not that Silver and Blaze have entered the castle, as has the Freedom Fighters apparently; this could be setting up for something pretty interesting. Review and I'll try to get the next chapter out sooner then last time!


	8. Bad Plans and Worse Situations

Next chapter folks! We are back to the Sonic and Sally POV. Now, as hard as it is, try to keep this in mind. The first POV in this chapter, which belongs to Sonic, takes place before the Blaze's second POV in the last chapter. I know, it seems a bit complicated, but I needed to express that as soon as possible.

Anyways, the Freedom Fighters V2 are going to get into Ro-fat- $$'s base and try to stop his plans with the 'Solaris' thing! With no further due, HERE WE GO!

* * *

"So much for ultimate!" Chuckling, I looked at Shadow, as Amy reared him into a sitting position.

"So is he going to be alright?"

"He'll be fine Rouge!" Amy remarked, feeling his face. "Looks like he just fell asleep."

The bat shook her head, mumbling to herself about something.

"Princess Sally, this is quite a costly delay." Nicole's nanites-composed body remarked. "Every second we wait-"

"Wait Nicole! If what Sonic says is true, Shadow could be a very valuable asset!"

"Of course, he's only medium power. The dude can't do anything without a Chaos Emerald!" I had to chuckle, turning around and stretching my arms again.

"I'd beg to differ." Turning around, a gloved fist smacked my face lightly. Stumbling back into Tails' arms, and rubbing my sore-chin, I had to chuckle. Shadow stood curled his fingers and uncurled them. "That was without a Chaos emerald."

"Both times we fought without emeralds, I still beat you!" I had to call out. It had been a while since I saw Shadow, and maybe I could get his goat this time around. Yet Shadow merely crossed his arms, looking uninterested in my mocking.

"Princess Sally, we must make haste." Nicole called again.

"I'm going to have to agree with Nicole on this one Sally girl." Bunnie remarked, coming back toward us after trying to see any farther ahead. "I think Robotnik's base is up there, and we'd be darn UN-noticed if Antoine didn't give us all away."

The said anthromorphic coyote came running over the hill behind the cyborg, throwing his arms about. "Hey! It was a great big anaconda! Zee biggest Snake in all of-"

"Antoine…" Bunnie sighed haphazardly. "It was a gardner snake."

"What are you people even doing here?" Shadow asked, sounding slightly amused.

"Well, since you've been sleeping…" I started in…

"Eggman attacked the country of Mobius. It is causing a massive world-wide collapse in currencies, and in the process it's forced the other nations to send their armies to Mobius to try and protect the nation to prevent any further downgrading of the world economy."

I looked in a slight amount of shock. Shadow bent from the waist, lowering his head just below the Queen's bust. "I understand, your majesty…but…" He straightened back up. "You didn't answer my question. Why are you here?"

"Um…Sonic…" Tails tapped me on the shoulder while Sally began explaining the bit to my rival about these mystical 'Solaris flames'

"Not now little buddy! We're busy!"

"It's kind of urgent!"

"You can turn your back to us to let loose a yellow stream." Trying to shrug him off, I was quite ready to add to Sally's explanation when Tails tried getting to me with one of his lines I just hate.

"I hate it when Sonic doesn't listen to me."

I spun around to face my 'bro' in a fury. "Dang it Tails! What the…" He pointed over my shoulder, and up ahead could be seen several SWATbots, running toward us with arm-cannons ready to fire.

"Ah! Sounds like an invitation to a party!" Curling into a spindash, my body launched away from the crowed, leaving them all in my dust.

Crashing through the first one and jumping on the head of the second one, I had to make one snide remark. "Well folks, today, you get a piece of…"Jumping over a Swatbot as it jumped toward me, then smashing it with my feet "…nostalgic treatment as I whoop the asses…" Grabbing one by the leg, I tripped him while two of his comrades fell while trying to run over him. "…of these ancient machines!"

Jumping back a bit more, I curled into a spindash and crashed the legs of two more of them. Stopping, jumping in the air and turning around, I looked at the next group of Swatbots, all with their arms raised and lasers aimed at me.

"I'll give ya to the-" Several familiar bolts of yellow energy flew over my head, crashing into the bots and destroying them in one fell swoop. "Shadow…you should have let me take 'em! I've only taken out 8 of them so far!"

He refused to answer. Rather, he charged farther ahead, to Eggman's castle fortress up ahead. Plenty of robots could be seen guarding it, probably trying to keep anything from the outside in. The Freedom Fighters and Rouge all ran up behind me, watching as Shadow moved into the group of robots.

"Sally…what did you tell him?"

"I barely got to telling him about the flames and he got a really insane look on his face." She remarked, running forward. I sped-walked backwards up to her, showing off for my fair Queen while making one more stabbing remark. "Well, he never was mentally stable!" Our group charged into the crowd of robots, all ready and eager to be destroyed by our gang.

* * *

Reaching the end of the rails, Sonic did a backflip, my stomach front flip, and he landed on the ground as I tried to keep my last meal in my stomach.

"How about an A for score?" He remarked, sitting me on the ground after traversing the rails of Robotnik's base.

"I'd say a E for lack of effort."

"Hey! Well you could at least give me an 'S' for showoff!"

"Shut up. You know what to do?"

"Oh yeah! Make the biggest distraction possible! I like that plan!" He remarked. For some reason, he was really trying to get under my skin today. Looking at the four walls surrounding the castle's interior 'garden' that was situated between two train tracks, he pointed at a camera and thumbed his nose at it.

"Remember, if the entire group isn't back here in 15 minutes, leave with the members that are here."

"No problem! You set explosives, I have some fun!"

I smiled for once today. Despite him being more of a pest today then the previous few days, he was at least willing to work with me.

A whistling noise, and all of the sudden Sonic had me back in his arms and landing several feet over. The spot he had just been standing on cackled with flames.

"This time, there will be NO more interruptions!"

Sonic's jaw dropped. "How the freak did you survive a Nuclear Explosion!?"

I raised an eyebrow at the Silver hedgehog. "That's the guy who almost killed you?"

"Stand out of the way!" The newcomer pointed to me, motioning his hand as if to make me leave like I was a pesky rat. "The Iblis Trigger MUST DIE!"

From the rails came another Mobian. This one was evidently female and feminine, purple fur matching with her purple clothing and hair. However, in each hand she had a fireball at the ready. And her eyes were locked onto Sonic, just like the white hedgehog's was.

"Sally, get out of here and set the charges!"

I looked at Sonic for a brief moment. "But Sonic…"

He grabbed me again and jumped as the fireballs from the female tried to incinerate him. "I can easily handle this on my own! I know his tricks, and I doubt either of them are as fast as I am!" Leaping to avoid several more attacks, he 'tossed' me onto my feet. "See ya later Sally!" Running up to me, he planted his lips on mine, so fast that I wasn't even sure what happened, and then he ran back to confront his opponents.

"He…the idiot kissed me…" Shaking my head, I had to shrug it off. It had been only a few days since last time we has passionately did anything like that, but with my country going to hell and back I felt like it had been months.

Putting the com-com in my ear, I could plainly hear the sound of Nicole greet me. "Greetings Sally."

"Nicole, where are you?"

Her artificial chuckle echoed over the communicator. "Currently uploading myself into Robotnik's Database. Hacking into a Playstation would be harder then this."

A pair of sliding doors opened as I approached them, and I stepped in, looking for Swatbots, Eggpawns, badniks, or anything of the like. Lucky for me, there was nothing. Just a very, very dark corridor. Honestly, I couldn't remember Robotropolis being this dark at any point in time. "Nicole, do you have a map of the area?"

"Downloading a map now." Tuning out the sound of mechanics in my ear, I listened instead to the careful sounds down the hall. Noises of machines and a solitary alarm somewhere in the far distance. "Download complete Sally. For the Control room, turn left in approximately 500 feet."

"Got it." Pulling out a small flashlight from my vest, and flipping the switch on, one thing made itself clear. Cheap flashlights do nothing in near total-pitch darkness. Still, my feet began placing themselves one in front of the other, moving down to the Control Room that would be the source of my sabotage.

"My sensors detect that you are surrounded by enemy presences."

"Impossi-" My heart leaped into my throat and my entire body froze in place. Lining both walls were in-numerable amounts of SwatBots. Shoulder to shoulder, all standing by to be turned on. "-ble." I swore lightly. "They all are deactivated Sally."

"Then I recommend you continue along down the corridor before they turn on."

"Right." Turning my speed up to a quick run, I peeled down the hall as fast as possible. Watching as the rows and rows of inactive machines filed by both of my sides.

"Sally, you passed your exit." Gritting my teeth, I turned around and looked at the door, with a small red 'Enter' light hanging over it, providing just enough glow for me to see when accompanied with my cheap flashlight. Pushing on the wooden door, an entire maze of stairs wrapped around metal polls and lining the sides of walls filled my eyes.

"One of these?" Stairs everywhere. Some of them would defy gravity if I tried walking on them. "How is it that when I escaped this place this wasn't here?" Just as my uttered sentence was finished the stairs began moving and shifting. Some of them folded into a ramp, a few split to form multiple paths, but all of them suddenly leading up and down like 'normal' stairs. "Yes! Nicole?"

"I have rearranged the stairs to lead to the quickest ways to the control room. I detect that up the third flight of metal stairs is the quickest way back to Robotnik's control room." Bypassing the first two sets, I tore up the third row, reaching into the inner pocket of my vest and pulling out the EMP grenade. One of the most potent weapons from our 'Good ol' days' as Sonic called them. If the system was that easy to hack into and control for Nicole, I doubted the machinery would be hardened against a miniature electromagnetic pulse.

"Enemy presences detected ahead." Breaking to a slower, methodical creeping up the stairs, my other hand reached for the flare gun in my hand. Bright enough that Tails' claimed it would 'blind the opposition like the super novas'.

"Why my dear Princess. It's nice to see you again." Robotnik's voice made my blood turn cold, as he stood in front of me, running his hand across his mustache while two Egg Pawns with maces stood behind him. "Maybe I can make my-"

"I have a gift for you." I pulled the pin off of the EMP grenade, and tossed it at him. 20 seconds. The small blast might be enough to collapse the stairs he was on and maybe drop him to his death.

"AGH! Get it away from me! It's an EMP!"

I was already running back down the stairs. I could hear the sound of the detonation above me, and could hear the two orange machines falling behind him.

"Get her get her get her get HER!"

Reaching the bottom of the spiral staircase, I tore to the door I had just walked through. Throwing it open-

I was greeted by a bunch of activated SwatBots, all with their arms ready to fire at me. "Well, God danm it!"

* * *

"That the best you've got?" I slammed into the telekinetic hedgehog again, and he sprawled backwards. Cart-wheeling through the air after that, I avoided two well aimed fireballs from the pyrokinetic one. "I mean, really?"

I switched to a different strategy. Make a target that they can't get an aim on. Going to a Bounce attack, I moved right at the white enemy, who began throwing green bursts of mental energy at me. However, just slight shifts one way or another on my part made me totally, well, impossible to hit! "Hold still!" His shouts were very irritated in nature.

"Can't catch me!" Bouncing toward him, I slammed my vivacious body into his head, pushing him over with an oomph from him. One down, and the other one was…

With a stunning sensation that was more unexpected they anything else, two feline arms wrapped around the 'width' of my arms, mostly ignoring my quills which I had sharpened to their toughest point. The pyrokinetic crashed my body onto the ground, forcing me to uncurl, and using the momentum from her leap toward me, drug my face through the unsatisfying ground, some of it filling my mouth.

"Bl-" Before I could spit it out, she pinned each arm on my spinal cord. Her knees dug just below my hips, keeping me from curling into a ball.

I didn't know what was going on. It just was hot, and not in a sensual way either. "Silver! Bind his extremities!"

"On it!" The white enemy, who had apparently regained his composure with this, used his mental abilities to enclose my arms, legs, and head. This was a familiar, unpleasant experience. And it was getting ridiculously hot. I could smell…

Smoke.

The realization hit me like a ton of bricks. She was trying to cook me from the inside out, starting with my spinal cord and backbone. And I couldn't move one freaking bit to defend against it. Sally, Tails, Bunnie, the entire gang was supposed to plant bombs. Shadow was running around in this castle AWOL, and Nicole was probably stealing and hacking Robotnik's computers.

And I needed help. It was getting hard to think now, the smoky fumes beginning to choke me along with the dirt that still filled my mouth. This was how I was supposed to go out. Sonic the Freaking Hedgehog, Deifier of one of the world's worst tyrants, sub-leader of the Freedom Fighters, Freer of Mobius, and World-Renowned superhero, to die as a burnt out husk.

Three things happened at once. The cold, alien sensation around my arms, legs, and head stopped. I could hear the anthromorphic feline atop of me loosen her grip as she shouted Silver's name in fear, and a familiar sound of a Chaos Spear crashed nearby. Taking my captor's divided attention into play, I curled into a ball, shrugged her off, and rolled over away from her, throwing her off of me.

I ran my hands through my fur after uncurling. At least two of my quills were burnt way down, and that would leave an unattractive bald spot. But I was alive, and again I could think clearly, and spit the earthen soil out of my mouth.

The feline was already walked back up to me, her hand outstretched down to my body and a swirl of flames congregating in her palm. This was my cue. Curling into a spindash, I immeadetly took off next to my saviour, the last person on earth I would of expected.

Shadow the Hedgehog stared down Silver, yellow chaos energy sparkling around my rival's fist while my enemy's hands readied with is own mental abilities. "Hey Shads! Be careful, that guy has mind powers!"

Silver responded first., and even Blaze stopped for a moment, flames dancing around her body. "Mephilis! Why are you keeping me from doing this!?"

Shadow crossed his arms, smirking. "I'm Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog. And I need to know what you know about the Flames of Solaris."

Silver opened his fist, shooting a blast of telekinetic power at both of us. We both were knocked to the ground by the force. "From what I know, THAT hedgehog…" He pointed to me. "…Destroys my future with those flames. Out of my way or I will kill you!"

"You know more then that, and I even know that." Shadow readied into his fighting stance, and I stood up next to him, smiling confidently. "Well Shadow, I think this might actually be the first time we fight side by side!"

"Get Sally, and get out of here." He whispered back at me. A telekinetic blast along with a fireball rocketed at us, and with a Chaos Shield he deflected both attacks. "Those bombs you guys planted should be going off in 180 seconds. If she dies, the world economy will collapse the rest of the way."

I didn't really give a crap about the economy. But Sally… I thumbed him up and ran to the door she had gone into, kicking it down while I could hear several explosions go off behind me as Shadow took my place in the fight.

SWATbots were everywhere, in the narrow corridor, and all of them had their backs turned to me. "Hey Bolt-Heads!" The ones closest to me turn around. "Turning you back on an enemy is a very, very bad idea!" Curling into a spin dash, I crashed through several rows of the metallic nuisances.

Sally stood in the center of the congregation, a pistol with no remaining flares being used to hammer off the robot's fingers and hands. "Sonic!?"

"Juicing time Sal!" Reminding her and me of one of my old lines, I can out, carrying her in my arms again, a familiar sensation that I would enjoy living again honestly.

I jumped back into the battlefield, and was greeted with a set of fireballs. Using some crafty abilities, I was able to duck under most of them, jumping over the other two. The cat had diverted her attention away from Shadow, and once again her sights were set on me. Jumping onto the rails that had led us into the center gardens, my SOAP shoes used the necessary momentum to get my princess and I out of the soon-to-self-destruct palace.

The cat followed me, using the rails almost as flawlessly as I did. Didn't matter. I was on an escape mission, and although she was behind me, throwing fireballs to try and kill me, the person in my arms was much, much more important then my own hide at this moment.

Maybe it seemed out of place, but for the first time, running from enemies and abusing my speed didn't appeal. The idea of showing off didn't appeal. Self-survival was a back marker in my mind. All that mattered was Sally. As I leapt out of the rail canyon that filled Eggman's lair, and was back outside once more, I asked myself an important question. 'Is this love? Willing to remove all of your wants to save the other person?' I always swore I 'loved' Sally, but this was easy-emotions aside. Quick-stepping another fireball, the question begged to be answered. Maybe I could answer it better if I wasn't trying to be killed.

* * *

I needed to end the chapter. I felt like it was getting to dragged out, and I also felt as if this was just a mediocre chapter. Sorry for the wait, I have been distracted and busy in school. But I hope you'll enjoy! Review with your praises, constructive criticism, or complaints. Preferably the first two.

Also, if you have an account, try to take time to vote on my new poll. It will have major implications on the future of my writing in this section.


	9. There is Never A Simple Answer

Continuation of the last chapter. Here a lot of things happen. Shadow Vs Silver battle for instance. Many thanks to my reviewers. You have been my inspiration! I hope you'll enjoy this, because HERE WE GO!

* * *

"My name is Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog. And I need to know what you know about the Flames of Solaris."

For the first time in my life, my opponent got the drop on me. My body was knocked back by an incredible force that felt like a wave of ice water without the wet. I would of landed on my feet, but while sliding backwards my left foot hit a rock and I landed on my side. "From what I know, THAT Hedgehog…" His finger pointed to Sonic as he began to stand up. "…Destroys my future with those flames!"

Standing up again, I shook my head once more. "You and I both know more then that."

"Well Shadow! This might actually be the first time we fight side-by-side for a change."

If there was anything I didn't want to do again, it was fight alongside faker. "Get Sally, and get out of here. All of those bombs your friends planted are set to go off in 180 seconds. If she dies, the world economy collapses."

A look of fear flashed across his face. "NO you don't!" The white hedgehog named Silver threw another Telekinetic bolt at him. However, that was deflected to the side as I threw up a Chaos Shield behind my rival. "Blaze! Go after him!" The feline darted toward the hedgehog, and as she did, my body was flung backwards again by my opponent. "Take this!" That shout preceded another barrage of telekinetic energy tossed me into one of the walls, and in pain I slid down, trying to regain the breath I had lost.

"Danm." Standing up, I and summoning the power of the Chaos Emerald, I threw a trio of Chaos Spears at the opponent. Granted, he wasn't nearly as fast or agile as I was, but he still blocked the attacks credit to the distance between us.

My hand went numb, and as if he was grabbing me by the wrist, he began to beat my face and body into the ground while flinging about like a rag doll. I'm not sure how long the barrage lasted.

When I came to, not to much time had to have passed, the bombs hadn't gone off yet. "Chaos…Control." Summoning the Emerald's power, I stood up, slowing everything around me to a crawl. Running forward, I smacked my fist plain into my opponent's face, following that with a knee in the groin and a lower punch in the stomach. As time resumed, he fell backwards, trying to regain his own breath now. "No. How-"

"I need your information and experience. This place has less then a minute until it self-destructs, and I highly suggest getting out of here."

"It's a bluff! I can't give up! I can't afford to lose!" Standing up, his eyes met mine. I knew what he would do. "RAAAGH!"

"Chaos Control." Time froze, and as he began to swing an over-exaggerated roundhouse punch at me, I walked behind him, and round-house kicked him in the back of the neck, knocking him over with a thud. That kept him down for a while at least. My hand grabbed the base of his neck, and with a second Chaos Control to warp space, I teleported the two of us outside of Eggman's Castle while time resumed normally.

"Is that everyone?" Turning around, my eyes met with Rose's and several of Sonic and Princess Sally's 'allies' standing there.

"To my knowledge. Rouge flew off already, swearing that we would need backup or something like that." Grabbing the semi-conscious hedgehog again and heaving him up, I began to shake him. "Silver…" No response. "Silver!"

"Take this!" A bolt of his mental energy smacked form his forehead and impaled me at Zero-Point. Earth-sky-Earth-sky, and my back was in the ground, staring into the blue sky as smoke from the now collapsing tower rose to the heavens.

The sound of a conflict could be heard, but I couldn't do anything about it. I needed to move, and nothing would respond. It took a while, but I then realized the strange angle my head was facing. With a single blast, my opponent must have snapped my neck, and possibly damaged my spinal cord. Granted, my body had remarkable regenerative powers, but could I heal fast enough for me to neutralize and converse with Silver?

* * *

Swinging my hammer as fast as possible, I aimed for his skull. However, before impact it was yanked from my hands by a seemingly alien force. Watching as it spiraled out of my hand, my weapon smacked into Antoine, knocking him onto his stomach as he began balling about angering some god. Next he used my Piko-Piko hammer to try and smack Tails out of the sky.

Running forward, I tossed my body atop of him, hoping to cause him to lose concentration. With a crash he collapsed underneath my thrusted weight, and his mental abilities were ceased. Just long enough for Bunnie and Tails to possibly get back to an offensive position.

Just as I finished that thought, he raised his hand and tossed me off to the distance. Landing on my legs and with my right gloved hand on the ground, I looked over my shoulder to the White-ish opponent as he began throwing mental attacks at my other two allies. My hammer was laying beside me, so with no other option I stretched my hand out toward it. The chip that Tails had placed in my hand and the hammer's base several years back attracted the weapon back to me in a flash. My weapon of choice working for me again, I approached my enemy, spinning the hammer about in all sorts of directions like circus workers do with flames and pins, all in a continuous motion.

He didn't see me. With a sharp blow I dealt him a hard dosage of pain in his solar plexis. Bowling over, I swung my hammer up into his chin. His feet left the ground, and he folded like a rag doll in mid-air, landing on the ground in a heap. Tails flew past me, landing in front of the enemy and whipping his namesakes into the assaulter's face, so as to keep him from re-using his powers.

It did no good though. With just his hand, the hedgehog tripped Tails, and as Bunnie charged with a punch from her mechanical arm, he threw up a mental block that sent her spiraling off to the side. Once again I aimed my hammer for his stomach area, but he was wise to it now. Telekinetically grabbing my hammer, it was suddenly crushed within my hands to a small ball of wood with a hint of metal. Without hesitation, he picked me up and tossed me off to the side.

I could hear a few seams in my dress tear as I landed, somersaulting several times briefly. As fast as I could, I went to my feet, the world spinning around me a bit. But I could see him as he stood over Shadow, his hand building with his telekinetic energy once more.

I was to far away to stop him. Raising his hand, he prepared for the final blow. "NOO!" Leaping forward, I shot my right hand out, hoping to stop the sure death.

And like magic, it did. A yellow stream of pure, undiluted energy spread from my fingers and crossed the expanse quickly. It smacked into his back, and with an 'oof' he landed on his chest, Shadow spared from what would have been his death.

"What the…?" Holding up my right hand, I turned it over back and forth. Yellow energy crackled around the tips of my fingers, running down my hand toward the bracelets I wore on my wrist.

_"Whatever you do…be careful. That ring of yours possess great power, and if you use it in the wrong state of mind, it could be hazardous." _Shadow's warning echoed in my head. It had been near forgotten. I had worn his old energy-restraining bracelet for some time, but nothing like that had happened before.

"Rose…" Shadow began standing up. Whatever injuries he should have had earlier seemed to be miraculously, almost conveniently healed. "…" He stared at me with his piercing eyes, the same way he had after I accidentally threw myself onto him on Prison Island all those years ago. "…I-Thank you."

The weight of what he just communicated was huge. Shadow was known to Sonic and his friends to be a stuck-up segregate. He was very quick to help if it benefited him, but yet earlier this year it didn't benefit him to help me find Cream and Cheese in Eggman's Castle. It also didn't truly benefit him to save the world and make a promise to me. Maybe…he was softer then he tried to show?

Spinning around, his fist made contact with the other hedgehog's face once more just as the opponent began to stand up again, and again he collapsed to the ground. "Rose, I need that inhibitor ring back."

"What!? Why?"

"Now that you've unleashed it's power, there is nothing to stop you from doing it again out of anger or fear." His red eyes bored into me again, and almost as if a cold winter's blow hit me.

I stumbled back in a subconscious reaction of fear. "I don't even know how I did it!"

He sighed. Tails walked up to me, grabbing my wrist lightly and looking at the bracelet. "The only thing I can guess is that it probably absorbs some of the Chaos Energy from the surrounding en-"

"I don't care Tails." I shook my arm out of his hands, and looked over at Sonic's opposite again, trying to not make direct eye-contact. "Shadow, for the first time in my life I was able to help someone and save their life! If it was this ring that helped me, don't make me go back to being a burden to Sonic and you and everyone else!"

"Rose, give me the inhibitor ring. You do not have the training necessary to control the energy that thing can hold." Still, his demand was cold.

I held my arm up close to my chest. "No!"

"No…" He repeated, staring at me with a slight measure of fury.

"No!" I reiterated, just incase he didn't understand the simple word. I racked my brain for the words. "Shadow, if you're that worried about it, Teach me how to use it!"

"What!?"

"Teach me how to use this energy correctly then Shadow!"

Tails shook his head. "Impossible Amy! You weren't born a Chaos Adept!"

"Neither were you." Shadow's switched the attention of his voice to Tails. "Look where you are now."

It was silent, the sound of a few remaining cackling fires from Eggman's collapsed fortress penetrated the thick silence. The two continued staring at each other, their darkest secrets laid open and bare. No one dared to break the silence, except.

"Take this!" Silver began to unleash another mental blast at Shadow, but Ebony overwhelmed Ivory as he spun around and clothes-lined him using his arm. Mentally I groaned in pain that surely the other character was feeling as he stumbled back, his hand holding his neck.

"Silver…" Shadow diverted his attention fully off of Tails, and slapped the white hedgehog on the cheek. "I need to know all that you know about the Iblis incident."

"I've told you everything!"

"I don't believe that."

Silver reached forward to push the created being away from him, but Shadow simply held up his emerald again. "Chaos Control."

This time, however, no one stopped or moved. The telekinetic had his hand on the emerald, and a swirling vortex of energy beside the two of them suddenly appeared. "You…Induced a Time Warp…" The expression on all of our faces were the same, pure shock.

I stepped forward. It didn't look like how I thought it would look, but then again, I hadn't seen one before. "What?"

Shadow gently pushed his hand through the portal, and pulled it back out. "If I'm going to find the information I need, it looks like I'm going to have to go several thousand years into the past." His gaze shifted toward Silver. "Come at your own risk. But if you try to attack me back then, I won't hesitate to kill you."

The other hedgehog's yellow eyes glanced at the portal, and back at Shadow, as if trying to make a decisions. "I'll do it."

"Good." Shadow turned around, facing me directly, his eyes locking with mine. "When I return and this mess is resolved, I will show you how to properly handle that energy. Only because you leave me no choice." His voice seethed with displeasure as he glared at the ring on my wrist.

And like that, he leapt into the portal. Following that, Silver jumped in behind him, and the portal closed.

"What waz that which was just the happening?"

"I-" Antoine's confusion raked his face heavily, and Bunnie continued standing there, confused like the rest of us at the entire situation.

"Does anyone know where Sonic or Sally is?"

* * *

The feeling of Time Travel may never settle well with me. After the bit with Mephilis and now this, it all seemed to complicated to be real.

The 'thud' of Silver's boots landed on the moist ground right before my hover-skates landed. The land showed signs of having once been charred, but grass was growing now, albeit in a very strange pattern. I held up the Chaos Emerald I had, as it began to wildly flicker strange colors in a way I had never noticed before.

"I don't like this place." My eyes turned to glance at Silver, who was looking around. "This is the distant past? I think I like you present much more. The air…it doesn't feel right."

"Conflicting energies."

"What?" He turned his head toward me. I held up the green emerald, flashing, dimming, the lighting back up in a organized pattern.

"Chaos Energy is over-the top here, but there are to many portals to other energy sources. It's causing a massive reaction…"

"I don't-"

"That means that there must be trans-dimension or trans-universal portals all throughout this world." I could recall the one time that Gerald had experimented with such portals.

"What do you mean?"

I turned my head toward him sharply. "It would take to long to explain. The shorter we are here, the better. I don't want to damage the time-stream any more then necessary."

He nodded, yet I could tell by his un-easiness that this was not registering with him. "We need to find Mephilis."

"Mephilis? He's here also?"

"Yes. Mephilis. I have a feeling that he is going to come through, or already has come through, one of the portals on this planet."

Silver turned around, looking at the grass that looked more like a spider's web covering the top of the earth. "How? This world is huge!"

"Then I guess we go to the nearest portal, and begin from there." Kicking my skates together, I powered off at a medium-pace, enough so my enemy-turned-ally would follow along with me.

It might have been hours, and a lot of hours later, because what had been a rising sun was just about to become a sitting sun when we reached our second portal, this one live and open as opposed to the other one which had been recently closed off.

There were several…humanoid creatures standing around the portal. "You think that's it?" Silver asked hoarsely, standing from a distance similar to how I was.

"Chances are no. But…" My eyes narrowed, and I focused on the humanoid beings. One of them looked to be a normal human, just with ears that stretched up well over his head. The second one also looked humanoid, yet had a pair of massive draconic wings protruding from his back and oversized fists for hands. The third looked human enough.

"We await the Final Cleanser."

"Ah yes." The tall-earned one remarked loudly. "Let us dispose of this pathetic world and the pathetic rules that we are bound to."

"Shadow…what are they-"

I clamped my gloved hand over Silver's mouth. Being from a world where only two living beings existed though, it made sense that he didn't understand how to be quiet.

"…they come now!" I missed a block of their conversation. The most human-looking one turned around, and I could see teeth that hung over his lip that looked like steak knives and red eyes that matched my own in color.

The bluish-white portal that they encompassed suddenly flashed to a brighter color, and a black, liquid substance slowly poured out. "Mephilis…"

"That's Mephilis!?"

"Before he copied my form." I readied a chaos spear. "Now the pieces have come together. Silver, when you start to see flames, I need you to bind it within a telekinetic shield as fast as you can."

"That would be Iblis?"

"Yes. But you need to act fast, otherwise, neither of our futures will exist."

The portal began to smoke, and a curvy spiral of fire poured out of it. "NOW!" Running forward, I instantly threw the spears. They quickly impaled the bodies of the humanistic creatures, and with a slump each and everyone fell to the ground, black fog rising from them…demons like Mephilis perhaps?

Speaking of which, the Mephilis liquid reared back, throwing some sort of attack at me, but it was easy to dodge. The thing lacked a definite form, which made it impossible for me to directly attack it. I would have to take a different approach…but what?

* * *

Finally! An update! I had really gotten to a dead-end on this chapter, thanks to writers block and a busy life. I lost inspiration to write for a bit. My writing defiantly suffered in this chapter, no way around it. However, I'm somewhat back. I'm interested in writing the next chapter for sure.

And if you are confused about these turns of events…PM me. I mean, it can't be THAT hard for me to explain. Review with criticism and the like.


	10. Flames throughout Time

It's been a while. I've just not been inspired to write, just typing has been an extreme hassle for me, as every sentence I type I over-analyze seeing 'if it is written right, or is it not?' I hate grammatical classes, my writing has taken a turn for the worst since starting them. Not just that, so many things in my life are piling up, eating away at any and all free time I ever had.

So here we are, Silver vs. Iblis and Sonic Vs Blaze! Bring it on! HERE WE…GO!

* * *

I remember once, a long time ago, Blaze saying something about trying to control her fires and how difficult it was. Simply because of how honest she always had been with me, I believed her. Now, things were different, and I could believe her from experience, somewhat. I was just trying to contain the fires of Iblis, just to snuff it out from lack of oxygen.

But before I could form a perfect barrier around it, some part of it would break through a weaker part in the barrier, growing a bit larger and reaching toward me as if to consume me in it's eternal flames.

"Oh no you don't…" Jumping to the side, my hands reached outward, several more spheres of telekinetic energy encompassing the demonic force. If it got much bigger, the strength and size of the shield necessary would be…to much for me to handle. The realization briefly caught me off guard, and in an instant the shield fractured.

Now the flames rushed toward me in a spear like formation. At the last possible minute, I rolled out of the way, forming a shield just in front of it so it would not be able to catch fire on the earth and the strange vegetation on the ground. It bounced off of the shield with no harm done to it, rushing upwards.

"Silver, get that thing sealed!" My companion's rough voice rang behind me.

"On it!" I held my hands separately, forming two massively curved walls around the demon, then slamming my hands together, the translucent waves of telekinetic force rushed together, encompassing the demon fully. "Got it!"

"Perfect." I smiled, observing the flames inside my massive telekinetic bubble began to fizzle out. Just a few more seconds, and the fires would be silenced, saving countless billions. I smiled, trying to ignore the pressure that the shield was putting on my mind, even as it was starting to block my vision out.

"No you don't!" I turned my head toward Shadow, seeing a black mass of particles rushing toward me. Having been exhausted by my shield, I could only stand there as Mephilis' original form rushed toward me, beginning to choke me.

That did it. My train of concentration was derailed, and I collapsed to the earth, one hand grabbing my throat in pain as the other began beating my chest. Mephilis was choking me, blocking my lungs…

"ENOUGH!" With a sudden stop, the black particles was sucked out of my throat and lungs through a spiraling vortex of yellow energy. It left me gasping for air, feeling the warm air rush back into my lungs and start to rejuvenate me.

I turned my head, looking at the source of the voice and vortex. A human, male human stood a few meters away, holding in one hand a jewel similar to Shadow's and in another, a strange object with four jackal heads on a stick. I could see the red and orange flames of Iblis rushing toward the staff, along with what was left with Mephilis while the jewel continued to sparkle brightly, releasing a yellow aura.

I heard Shadow walk by me, readying another Chaos Spear. "Who are you!?" Pulling myself off the ground, I began to summon telekinetic waves around me again, preparing myself to any last trick against this stranger.

"I should be the one asking that." Taking the object that now contained Iblis and Mephilis inside of it, he put it in the folds of his robes. "You two clearly aren't humans, yet you are the only ones able to self use the Emeralds of Organized Power." The man brought his hand up to his face, scratching his beard. "You seem a bit like those Echidnas on that floating island, but you lack the dreadlocks, and most of them are red or orange in fur color…"

"My name is Shadow. I am the world's Ultimate Lifeform. And I demand to know…"

"Wait, wait just a minute. I'll be asking the questions, this is my property. What are you two. Demon's that have rejected Lucifer's ways and hoping to get brownie points with HIM-who's-name-should-not-be-uttered."

"I am NOT a demon!" I shouted in anger, stomping my boots on the ground. "Iblis is the demon that-"

"I know about Iblis. Some loud mouthed Nephilim in one of the bars was spouting off to me about it." The old man pulled on his beard. "Hmm. Perhaps, just to ensure you two can't mess with these dangerous fires anymore, I should send them, yes, to the moon. Of course, with all of the knowledge that those fallen angels have passed down, it may be found again, but no one will know how to release them." The old man was talking to himself. He must have been half-mad!

"I call upon our Father in heaven, His name who shall not be mentioned, to give me the power, and send this to a place that it can not be used!" He pulled the yellow emerald and the jackal staff back out of his robes, and held it up to the sky. "Transport!"

The emerald glowed insanely bright, and I took a pair of steps back, my eyes not being adjusted to the bright light from the stone in the late-twilight stages of the day. The shinning power didn't affect Shadow any. He crossed his arms, and watched the bright light as it began rising like a giant plume of smoke upwards into the darkening sky. Up to the moon. It wasn't the same moon that I saw in my future, which was badly fractured with an exposed, red center. This moon was whole, pure, with fewer craters then even the fragmented body I was familiar with catching glimpses of through the Sulfur and smoke in Crisis City.

Even the light faded away. The gemstone returned to giving off the faint glow that it had before. "The…thing!" I didn't know what to call the object that held Mephilis. "He took it!"

"No no. I merely put it on a large place that will take years to find it. Oh, him who must not be named should smile upon this day, as once again, Lucifer's plans were foiled." The old man chuckled, turning and walking away. "Oh, and by the way, my name is Enoch." He began stumbling off, taking the yellow emerald with him.

"What was…Shadow!?" I looked at Shadow, who turned around and crossed his arms. "Shouldn't we go after him!?"

"What good would it do?" He sighed. "I know what happened now. Mephilis wasn't lying all the way." He turned his head to face me. "I demanded from you what you didn't have. Information on Iblis."

"Shadow?"

"I was the one who destroyed your future. Before my lifetime, but long after this time, there were two nations. The United Federations and the U.S.S.R. The two nations wanted to destroy each other, but neither could do it without being annihilated by the other's weapons. They put machines on the ground, in the air, and even in space. I was born on one of those space weapons. And in a selfish act of vengance, I destroyed the moon with one of those weapons, and somehow, the part with Iblis and Mephilis landed on earth. In an accident, I released them." His cold, red eyes looked up at mine. "However, the key to saving your future do not lay this far in the past. They lay in my present." He held up the Chaos Emerald.

"So…you did this, unknowingly?"

"I made a promise that I plan to keep." He grabbed my hand roughly. "Your going to help me keep it." Holding up his emerald, and putting my own hand on it, he raised it up toward the sky. "Chaos…"

"…Control?" I asked, hesitantly. Another spinning vortex opened beside us. With nothing more to be said, he leapt into the portal.

I stared at it for several seconds. The information download he gave me was…intense. And now, my color-opposite was my only hope to counter the flames of disaster. It was to amazing for words. I narrowed my eyes, and leapt in though the portal I created.

* * *

Another stream of fire tore from my hands, falling short of the target. The Blue Hedgehog was more of a pest then I thought. With Silver working with me, yes, he could be caught. But it was his speed. He was faster then me, something I thought was impossible.

"Put down the girl so we can fight without risking other's lives!" Unlike my fireballs, that call indeed reached my opponent. Suddenly he slowed down, way down. I took this time to catch up and ready several more fireballs in my hands. The female in his hands seemed to be tossed aside, as if he was trying to get her off of him. Despite the lack in his speed, he didn't stop.

The pair of fireballs streamed from my hands, narrowly missing the blue creature as he side-stepped them in the nick of time. It distracted him though, and he tripped over something, looked like a gray stone. With that I pulled ahead of him, fire intentionally blazing from my hands to char the ground beneath me.

The sound of his rapid footsteps were approaching once more. Directly behind me. In an instant I dug my left foot in the ground, throwing fire up around me as my momentum went from straight forward to a super fast clockwise circle.

He crashed into me and my flames, unable to avoid it. I flipped onto the ground on all fours, watching as he stumbled ahead of me. Rushing forward again, I grabbed his arms and lit the fur on it on fire. Quickly, his scream sounded and he curled into a ball like the times he had before. Quickly, my hands wrapped around him as I prepared to toast him with the steady stream of flames.

My opponent must of expected this. His spikes tore against my hands and he shot out of my grasp, the momentum enough to bowl me over onto my back. "Darn. Cursed Hedgehog."

Standing back up I brushed myself off, searching the landscape for my opponent. He seemed to be long gone, but I could hear the sound of his spindash buzzing in my ear, getting louder.

In an instant, I was hit from the side as he shot into me. Flipping up in the air, I could see sky, earth, and blue as he smacked me again, sending me crashing into the ground. "Nggh!" The blue ball came at me from above, and at the last second I rolled out of the way, sending him crushing the earth beneath me.

I set my hands gently on the ground, trying to regain my sense of balance. A high pierced whirring sound could be heard out of my ears, and turning to my left, I could see him spinning rapidly in a ball, yet in one place, particles of energy spiraling around him. "Ready!"

Rushing to my feet, I went back to the offense as I threw several streams of heavy fire at my opponent. His curling form didn't change at all underneath my barrage. "What in the-"

Without warning his from shot into mine, knocking me back into the air before I even realized it. This was followed by another smack into my side, my back, and all around me I could only see blue blurs going every which direction.

After the seemingly infinite attack, the ground solidly met with my face and front. Raising my left arm, I rolled myself over, looking at the sky above as every section of my body ached from the attack. I could hear him leave, but I still felt crippled, watching as the white clouds in the sky blew about.

"Sonic! Is she…"

"No time Sally! We've got to get back to our meeting place. The other Freedom Fighters will be waiting there for us, for sure!"

Freedom fighters? It sounded familiar…a memory from my past. My mother…and her good pink friend. They were good friends, and they called themselves Freedom Fighters. Could it be more then just a coincidence? Could the blue hedgehog that we were sent to kill part of the same group that I and my mother were part of, somehow linked to the royal lineage I was part of?

The sound of his footsteps were gone. I began to sit up, my body aching in pain. "Something's not right here." Coming to my two feet, I observed the grass that was padded downward by the hedgehog's feet. "I need to find Silver."

* * *

The plan Shadow and I devised was simple. I would find Blaze and Sonic, the blue hedgehog. I would convince them to go after Eggman, who currently possessed the Flames of Disaster. No problem. Blaze and I could easily find each other, she would still be chasing Sonic.

Aircraft flew in the air, streams of smoke trailing behind projectiles in the sky. I wondered if this was anything like that air weapons that Shadow talked about prior. The projectiles would home onto other speeding aircraft, destroying them quickly.

"Priority #1: Hedgehog." I quickly spun on my boots to face the in-human voice. Several robots, around twice my size, stood behind me, pointing their gun-shaped arms at me.

"I-What!?" Before they could begin shooting me, I pushed them back with a large telekinetic blast, the group flying backwards and shattering from my abilities into twisted metal.

"You again!?" I turned back to the way I had been facing. The blue 'Sonic', holding the female he had been with when Blaze was chasing him down.

"There's been a change in plans!" I shouted at him, and he took several cautious steps back. "I need to work with you to find Eggman."

The eyes of the girl widened. But the other hedgehog smiled widely, winking at me. "Okay man. Let's do this!"

I could hear something else in the background. More running. It could only be Blaze. Walking around my former enemy, I faced the path he had just came from, watching as her graceful form sped across the plains toward us.

"Blaze!" She began slowing to her stop. "You were right."

"Silver, we need to re-consider…"

"I'm ahead of you. We need to work with Sonic and defeat this Eggman person."

She looked at me, unsure at first. "I'll trust you on this."

A high-pierced whistling sound filled the air. Our eyes turned upwards as several oblong, black objects dropped toward us. "GET AWAY!"

I threw up my telekinetic shield, covering the four of us from it. The objects detonated mere feet away from us, shattering into pieces with flames billowing and consuming everything not covered by our shield.

"What was that!?" Blaze called out.

"Those weren't Eggman's bombs! Not with that much black smoke."

"No Sonic. Those were Russian bombs."

"What?! But no one is crazy enough to further the world's economic collapse! Let alone work with Eggy!"

"I don't know about that Sonic." The female remarked. "My brother would know more about it. But one thing is certain. This may no longer be just a war against Robotnik. He may have started World War III."

I turned to look at Blaze. Her 'royal' upbringing and training in her younger years might be able to tell me something. She merely looked back at me, her eyes portraying worry. An emotion I rarely saw from her.

* * *

Considering that I have not even tried writing for a long time to due massive un-inspiration, I now have what I want to happen all mapped down. The next chapters will cover the offensive against Eggman/Robotnik, and the full explanation of what is going to happen with the Flames of Iblis, still sealed inside of Snively.

But GAAAAHHH I made Shadow WAAAAYYY OOC!


End file.
